


Once More With Feeling

by Aviss



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-17
Updated: 2010-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-07 08:31:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sanji is given a second chance to set things right. And a third. And a fourth…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 0

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Chinese translaton on "Once More With Feeling"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/238727) by [renata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/renata/pseuds/renata)



_You have seven days. Don't waste them._  
  
Sanji looked at the vanishing figure of the strange woman and closed his eyes.  
  
Everything hurt: his head was throbbing painfully, his right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle and he was fairly sure his left hand was shattered. His legs had been useless for the last few minutes and the dull ache of the bullet wound in his abdomen was a slow drain for his remaining energy. He didn't have much time left; perhaps minutes, perhaps mere seconds.  
  
He didn't care, he just wanted a cigarette. He'd rather have the taste of nicotine in his mouth while he died. Defeat was a hundred times bitterer.  
  
The water lapped at his fallen body, the Sunny sinking slowly into the ocean. Behind his closed eyelids he could see everything as it was before he fell: Robin and Nami together, beautiful even in death with their cuffed hands reaching to one another, trying to protect what they held dear. Franky, mouth open in a silent scream, speared through the chest and nailed to the main mast in an obscene display. Usopp had been the first one to die; a bullet to the head cutting off his attempts to jump overboard to save those who couldn't save themselves. Luffy, Chopper and Brooke were nowhere to be seen but Sanji could still remember the splash their bodies had made when they were tossed overboard, sea stone cuffs rendering their strength useless.  
  
And the Marimo--that had been the worst, seeing Zoro's expression as his beloved sword was snapped as easily as a toothpick, his shock and disbelief at the blasphemy. It had been unfair, so unfair seeing the strength leaving him while the shards of his own Wadou Ichimonji were thrust into his chest.  
  
Sanji had never felt so useless in his life, his legs unable to sustain him or help any of his nakama.  
  
Then came the shot and the blessed relief knowing he wasn't going to survive them.  
  
That was when the old woman appeared; a pearly shape, almost translucent, her face wreathed in deep lines of sorrow and knowledge staring at him. Her mouth had been a straight line, thin and unforgiving, but her eyes were kind and filled with compassion.  
  
You welcome_ Death? _You welcome_ me?_  
  
Her voice didn't match her looks, young and sweet and loving. Sanji had smiled, his dry throat refusing to form the words.  
  
_Yes,_ he had thought. _Yes, take me too, take me with them._  
  
She had stared at him hard, considering. Then she nodded her head.  
  
_I see. You can't live with your soul splintered and so many fragments missing. You don't want to. But it's not your time--it wasn't theirs either._  
  
She appeared to be considering something for a minute and her lips curled into a smile, the years falling off her like so many layers of paint, leaving a beautiful woman in her place. Sanji stared speechlessly.  
  
_You have one chance for each of them. Choose well for when I come back to claim you I might take your whole world or only the parts you didn't manage to take back from me. There are eight fragments, seven may stay. You have seven attempts to put things back to rights._  
  
_You have seven days. Don't waste them_  
  
And with that, she was gone and Sanji was dead.  
  
…


	2. Day 1

The first thing Sanji saw when he opened his eyes was Zoro's face scowling down at him.  
  
_Great, not only I'm dead I'm in Hell; the circle reserved for weaklings and cowards who let their _nakama_ die in front of their eyes._  
  
It was that thought, so out of place in the middle of the Thousand Sunny's galley, his galley, what startled Sanji into complete wakefulness.  
  
"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," he replied, standing up from the bench and moving to the door, the words feeling wrong in his mouth as he was saying them. Had he dreamt about this already?  
  
He climbed to the Crow's nest without looking back, the light scuffle of boots on the deck and the sound of a door closing telling Sanji the marimo was going to sleep. He was completely alone in the middle of the night.  
  
He was feeling strange as if he was forgetting something important, something he needed to remember.  
  
Sanji stared out at the ocean, the black waters reflecting the moon like a mirror--a distorted mirror rippling with minor undercurrents and giving the moon an odd reddish tint in the dark ocean.  
  
Red Moon, a bad omen if there ever was one.  
  
With a shrug, Sanji took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it on his lips, lighting it with an expert flick of his lighter. They were in the middle of the Florian Triangle, barely a couple of days away from Thriller Bark. It had been Moria and his ship what gave the Triangle its bad reputation, hadn't it? So there was nothing to fear from the calm ocean, there wouldn't be any strange happenings unless they managed to find another dumb Shichibukai.  
  
With their luck, it was more than probable but he had more important things to think about.  
  
Like that stupid Zoro and his death wish.  
  
He was still annoyed that the moron had knocked him out when he offered his life in exchange for the crew. That fucking shitty-swordsman and his martyr complex, he was going to kick his head in as soon as Chopper deemed the idiot fit for his normal activities again.  
  
That was what he was going to think about in the peaceful hours of his night watch: a thousand and one ways to kick the stupid, dumb marimo after he completely recovered from his injuries.  
  
He wasn't going to think about how he had felt when they woke up, Luffy hyper as always and bouncing completely unharmed, everyone else bruised but more or less fine as well, and he had not seen Zoro around. The way his heart had stopped seeing the discarded swords--something the bastard would never leave behind willingly--, only to start beating frantically in his chest, as if trying to escape from it, the moment he saw him standing and alive, barely but still breathing, in the middle of the blood stained destruction.  
  
He had wanted so badly to kill the insensitive bastard for putting them through that. Instead, he had lent him a shoulder to lean on while they made their way back to where their nakama waited.  
  
It was almost funny how lately his thoughts seemed to go back to the marimo all the time. Or it would be if it wasn't so weird, Sanji wasn't used to think--and worry--so much about another man. A man he knew was strong enough to defeat Death itself in a fight.  
  
But however weird it was, ever since they left Thriller Bark his mind had been full to burst with marimo thoughts. He'd tried to imagine what would have happened to the crew if the idiot had not survived but had been unable to get past his own reaction to it, never mind considering the rest of them.  
  
It didn't bear thinking about.  
  
And there was a niggling feeling at the back of his mind trying to tell him something. Something about Zoro and his white sword snap--  
  
The first light of dawn and the sound of soft steps on the galley snapped Sanji out of his reverie. His watch was over and now it was time to prepare breakfast.  
  
Sanji's favourite thing about making breakfast was the silence. A pirate crew was supposed to be rowdy and noisy but the Straw Hats took it one step further. They weren't just noisy and rowdy; their mere presence was the definition of mayhem. In the mornings Sanji took the chance to enjoy the only moments of silence during the day, his mind going idly over the day's menu and the state of his supplies.  
  
He had made so many breakfasts, at the Baratie and with the crew, he could almost do it in his sleep. That was the reason he usually let his mind wander while he prepared the rice and the miso soup, the sweet omelette the women favoured and the grilled fish. There was always some meat for his Captain, who seemed to be unable to survive without it.  
  
He was trying to regain that feeling he had in the Crow's nest, emptying his mind of any thoughts while his hands worked on the lavish spread he usually did for his nakama. He was sure it had been important.  
  
But he couldn't remember it.  
  
Well, it didn't matter; it would come to him sooner or later if it was so important.  
  
Sanji put aside the pans and cleaned his knives, eyeing the breakfast table while the first sounds of life returning to the ship reached his ears. Right on time.  
  
He poured a mug of strong steaming coffee and deposited it on its spot on the table at the same time the door to the galley opened, a somewhat bleary but still lovely Robin stepping in and taking her proper sit on it.  
  
"Thank you Sanji-san," she said her voice low and husky, "last night's watch felt longer than ever."  
  
She had been more open since their return from Ennies Lobby and tended to engage everyone more in conversations about herself, letting them see her feelings. Sanji was thrilled.  
  
"It's too early after our last adventure, Robin-chan," he heard himself saying, something in those words making alarm bells sound inside his head. Had he said them before? He couldn't remember. Maybe it was just a déjà vu. "We are not fully recovered and we also have to do the shitty-swordsman's watches until he's recovered from his latest stunt."  
  
Sanji blinked, confused. It was really weird getting a déjà vu like that when he couldn't even remember the dream.  
  
"Zoro-san needs his rest after--" she began, a knowing expression on her face. Sanji wondered how much she really knew but Robin closed her mouth at the same time the door opened again, letting in said swordsman closely followed by the rest of the crew minus Franky, who was on first watch.  
  
"Sanjiiiiiiiiiiii, I'm starving!" Luffy whined opening his mouth in a gigantic yawn while his hands stretched to grab the first available piece of meat.  
  
Sanji kicked him for not waiting to be seated at the table while everyone took their usual seats and began to eat, and chaos reigned in the Sunny like every other day.  
  
Sanji had little time to think about that weird feeling during the rest of the day. Right after breakfast, Franky's shout alerted them of a huge storm front advancing toward them, and the whole crew had more than enough entertainment for the rest of the morning trying to stay afloat to spare even a brain cell for something as useless as thinking.  
  
If they had believed the weather was strange in the Grand Line it was nothing to what the Florian Triangle had to offer: rain, sun, thunderstorms, snow and even a tornado all in the span of a few hours. One thing was for sure, however strange it was it wasn't boring.  
  
Sanji barely had time to put together little more than a few onigiri and some meat for Luffy to keep their energies while they worked; lunch was a quick affair where they just grabbed what they could and ate standing at their posts, ready to spring into action at Nami's shouted orders.  
  
When the worst of the storm was over and the Sunny was finally out of danger everyone slumped on the deck, exhausted.  
  
"Woah! This was fun!" Luffy's standard reply to anything which might kill them managed to conjure tired smiles on everyone's face.  
  
Sanji would have gladly joined the crew for a small breather, but he had already skipped lunch and there was no way the Straw Hats went without two solid meals if it was within Sanji's power. Dinner had to be especially good--and abundant--to make up for the previous one.  
  
He was in the kitchen, getting his ingredients out of the padlocked fridge and putting them on the counter when the door opened and closed. The heavy sound of booted feet told Sanji, without having to look, it was Zoro. Probably for some booze to celebrate they were still alive and sailing without much damage to the ship after that hellish morning.  
  
Sanji ignored his presence and began chopping vegetables, his mind going over the recipe for tonight's dish. The silence stretched, only the fast sound of his knife hitting the board filling the kitchen.  
  
That was strange, why was the marimo still there? He usually just took whichever bottle was closest to him and left to drink outside. Sanji began to feel uncomfortable, Zoro's eyes fixed on the back of his head and that unnerving quietness annoying him.  
  
"What are you doing here, Marimo?" he snapped without turning when he couldn't stand the silence anymore, his attention focused on the vegetables he was cutting within an inch of their lives. "Don't you have anyone else to annoy?"  
  
Zoro didn't answer and for a moment Sanji thought he might have fallen asleep. He took a quick peek over his shoulder only to find Zoro staring intently at him, a serious expression on his face and an unopened bottle next to him.  
  
"Something bothering you, Cook?" Zoro finally said, demandingly.  
  
Sanji frowned, the movement of his hands halting for a split second before resuming his task. "You are bothering me," he replied, looking at his chopped vegetables satisfied with his job and moving to the next step.  
  
"No, you have been staring at me since I woke up two days ago," Zoro insisted with his usual bluntness, his eyes still fixed on Sanji. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"  
  
Sanji turned at that, his brows rushing together in a scowl. "No," he simply said, knowing there was no way he could explain to the idiotic masochist what he really wanted to. Not if the conversation didn't involve much cursing and kicking, and Sanji was convinced Chopped wouldn't forgive him if he sent the marimo back to the infirmary so soon after last time.  
  
Zoro frowned, observing him even more intently. He abruptly stood up, nodding his head almost to himself, and grabbed the bottle on the table. He turned to the door and Sanji allowed a small sigh of relief to escape his lips.  
  
What actually came out, before Sanji has the chance to stop it, was different. "On second thought, what the fuck did you think you were doing?" he heard himself saying much to his chagrin; he sounded equally pissed off and concerned.  
  
Zoro stopped at the door and turned to look at him again, "What do you mean?"  
  
"What do I mean?" Sanji snapped letting the anger that had been building inside of him since they left Thriller Bark taking control of his mouth and brain, "What I mean is what idiotic, completely retarded and suicidal impulse made you do--" he cut himself off at the sight of Zoro's arched eyebrow and smirk. "Forget it, I don't care."  
  
Zoro just went to the table and sat again, his amused expression irking Sanji even more.  
  
"You tried to do the same, Cook. Or have you already forgotten? I just was stronger and quicker than you."  
  
Sanji narrowed his eyes and spun around, hand clenched tightly around his knife to avoid throwing it at the bastard. There was no reason to desecrate his beloved knives.  
  
He opened his mouth to say something else when Usopp's shout from outside grabbed their attention. "Pirates!"  
  
Sanji and Zoro rushed outside, their conversation already forgotten in the face of more entertainment for the evening. "Damn, I didn't have time to finish dinner," Sanji muttered to himself but loud enough to earn a sharp look from Zoro. "I hope they don't take too long to be defeated."  
  
Zoro's lips quirked up, "You can always go back inside, Cook, and let us deal with the problem," he said.  
  
"Nah, I've wanted to kick some ass for a couple of days," Sanji replied looking at him with a smirk of his own and getting a cigarette out of his pocket, "and since you are still recovering and will have to pass on this one, I guess I'll stay."  
  
Zoro's expression turned murderous, his hands resting on the hilt of his swords, "Who says I can't fight?"  
  
They both fell silent as the ship came into view. It was a ship made for the Florian Triangle that much was clear: black, huge and creepy. They couldn't see anyone on the deck, the wood looked half decayed and very, very old and there were no sails except for a few ripped strips of rotten cloth hanging from the mast. The only thing seemingly in good condition was the Jolly Roger if it could be called that. For one, it wasn't jolly at all. The flag had a skull; that was where any resemblance to a pirate flag ended. The skull was very realistic, from the deranged cold grin of the lipless mouth to the black holes of the eyes. It had a hood covering it and there were no crossed bones under it. Instead, there were two scythes crossed diagonally behind it.  
  
It was the creepiest flag Sanji had ever seen.  
  
"Ew," Nami said from her place near the railing, Robin standing next to her with a curious expression on her pretty face, "that has to be the most disgusting Jolly Roger I've seen."  
  
Sanji couldn't agree more, and he would have said something to that respect if there weren't alarms going off in his brain. He had seen that flag before, or at least it felt as if he had.  
  
But it had been a dream. One he couldn't fully remember but which was sending chills down his spine, a feeling of dread and foreboding making him feel strangely cold.  
  
Something bad was about to happen.  
  
When it came the attack was quicker and more savage than they would have ever imagined. The Straw Hats were used to being attacked by Marines and other pirates; it was the price of fame, and that huge bounty on their collective heads made them a sought target for everyone with a bit of skill and a lot of ambition. But at least people gave them a warning. Fuck, even Marines gave warning before trying to capture them.  
  
One instant Sanji was looking at the black ship, his mind awhirl with a thousand different premonitions of death and doom, and the next he was jumping aside, his opponent materializing in the spot he had been occupying. It was all so fast Sanji didn't get to see any movement, just the feeling something was coming and the moment he moved aside the space wasn't empty anymore.  
  
Something similar must have happened to the rest of his nakama, the cries of outrage and plain fear ringing loud and clear in the ship. Sanji had no time to look around, too involved in his own fight to spare even a second to check how the rest were doing.  
  
He had to trust they were strong enough to defeat whatever it was attacking them.  
  
Sanji turned to look at his enemy and blinked in surprise: a hooded figure, completely shrouded in darkness was standing in front of him, no features visible and a long and wickedly sharp scythe in his hand. A shiver ran down his spine.  
  
"Who are you and what do you want from us?" Sanji heard himself saying, his voice harsh and grave.  
  
The other didn't answer, it didn't even make a move but Sanji felt a powerful blow to the ribs, the wind knocked out of him. He doubled, coughing, and dodged to the side when he felt a slight stirring in the air next to his head, avoiding a blow just by a hair's breath.  
  
Sanji looked around; the figure hadn't moved an inch. It was impossible.  
  
All around him the sounds of the fight were escalating, shouts, screams and the explosions which characterized Franky's and Usopp's style. Sanji wanted to know how they were doing but he had the feeling that if he diverted his attention even for one second he was going to pay dearly.  
  
Conversation was going to take him nowhere, he knew. His enemy had yet to say anything or even turn to look at him. In his head, he could see scenes from his forgotten dream, and match the movements almost exactly to the ones he was performing. He could almost guess where his enemy was going to go next, but if that was the truth then the outcome of the fight was already settled, and that he wouldn't admit.  
  
Sanji did a back flip when he felt the next blow coming, standing on his hands and launching a barrage of kicks at his immobile opponent. It felt as if kicking through air, nothing connected. Stunned for a second Sanji didn't move fast enough, the pain exploding in his right arm where it had been it, his balance completely shot to hell.  
  
Sanji crumpled to the deck, panting harshly. Fuck, it hurt! That had been no normal blow, it felt almost like one of his kicks and it had dealt as much damage as he usually did. He didn't need to look at his arm to know the bone was broken. Fuck.  
  
And what made it worse what that he knew it was coming. He had seen it in his head and still had been unable to move out of the way fast enough.  
  
On another part of the ship, a pained scream tore the air and Sanji turned his head without thinking, almost an involuntary reflex. Nami was standing with her clima tact in her hands, in front of her another of those unnervingly silent and still hooded figures. She had struck with the rod, passing through her enemy as if it wasn't there. There was blood staining her clothes and dripping down her legs.  
  
Sanji wanted to go to her and help but couldn't, that instant of distraction had cost him, a scream lodged in his throat while he felt his leg being sliced open at the thigh. Again he had not heard or felt the hit coming until he was unable to dodge it.  
  
Shit, shit, shit. Whoever these fuckers were they were maiming them. Not killing yet, just rendering them unable to fight.  
  
Forcing his mind to move past the pain Sanji limped away, trying to put some distance between him and his enemy; still, no words had been spoken and for what he could hear, his nakama had gotten the same response. Creepy didn't even begin to describe these bastards.  
  
He needed a cigarette. His left hand was trembling lightly when he put it in his pocket to get the stick and he forced himself to relax, take a deep breath and light it. Time to get serious.  
  
Sanji closed his eyes and inhaled, exhaling the smoke in a soft cloud in front of his face. He saw a figure shimmer faintly in the smoke and dodged, eyes widening at the realization of what had happened. The hooded one had not moved from his position but Sanji had seen something, something had stirred in front of him and he jumped back, mindful of his injured leg he swung his good one and felt it connect.  
  
But the other one was still in the same spot.  
  
It wasn't possible. It just wasn't--but this was the Grand Line, the Florian Triangle, anything was possible.  
  
_I got you!_ Sanji thought, part of the fear which had been gripping him since the beginning of the fight leaving now he knew his opponent was real and could be hit.  
  
He was getting ready to attack when something hit his head, pain exploding inside his skull at the same time a chilling shriek filled the air. Darkness surrounded him for a second, dragging him away from victory.  
  
When he opened his eyes again Sanji was laying on the deck, the echoes of the scream had faded to nothing and he could hear a faint sobbing close. Sanji tried to stand and felt both his legs give under him.  
  
Shit. He couldn't have been unconscious more than a minute and in that time the fight was lost.  
  
"Robin, Nami don't worry," Sanji heard his Captain say, voice utterly serious like he had only heard Luffy when confronted with strong opponents. "I'll defeat these guys, whoever they are."  
  
He took stock of the situation: there were eight hooded figures standing unmoving on the deck, one facing each of the Straw Hats. Or almost--he couldn't see Franky. Robin and Nami were next to each other, hands cuffed in front of their bodies, Nami's clima tact discarded on the deck. They were both bleeding and looked the worse for wear, but they didn't seem fatally wounded. Usopp was close to them, his weapon was also on the ground, he was beaten and bloodied but still standing, hands free and head scanning his surroundings attentively. He tried to move closer to the girls and recoiled suddenly, blood spurting from his mouth.  
  
Sanji had not seen who attacked but had seen the blow.  
  
On the girls' other side Luffy was trying to stand, his hands were cuffed and his legs seemed to lack the strength to support him. Seastone. Brooke and Chopper were by his side, both of them sporting cuffs as well.  
  
Sanji wanted to close his eyes, he knew what was coming.  
  
The only one still moving on the Sunny with some normality was Zoro, but it was easy to see he was having problems with his unseen enemy. He kept attacking blindly, his willpower the only thing that kept him standing with his injuries. And he had not fully recovered from Kuma's defeat yet.  
  
Luffy finally stood, one hand on the railing to help him keep his balance, the sea stone robbing him of strength. Sanji opened his mouth to shout a warning but no words came, instead just a howl of agony ripped out of throat when something hard and heavy fell on his left hand, the snap of bones breaking loud enough to be heard. Luffy turned to look at him with horror and pain clear in his gaze, and the next instant he was falling overboard, Chopper and Brooke following him.  
  
No! Sanji wanted to shout, his eyes going to Usopp who watched them fall and turned to jump after them. _No_.  
  
He didn't get the chance, the sound of a gunshot ringing clear in the air as Usopp fell, blood flowing from his head.  
  
And still, the hooded figures had not moved.  
  
Sanji's eyes moved on their own volition to Zoro, who was staring at him with disbelief and horror plainly written on his face before he knees gave and he fell, almost as in slow motion, his eyes never leaving Sanji, a trickle of blood running from his mouth.  
  
Sanji had seen enough, he didn't need to see the rest. He didn't want to.  
  
In the darkness, he heard the girls crying out, heard Franky's scream and the shot that pierced him. It didn't matter, not anymore.  
  
All that mattered was they had failed, they had lost.  
  
_You've wasted a day, do you really want to save them?_  
  
Sanji opened his eyes wearily at the voice, his breath too loud in the suddenly silent ship. The woman was there, staring sternly at him and Sanji realized how much of an idiot he had been. The clues were there, the knowledge of what was going to happen was all inside his mind. And he had been too preoccupied with their daily affairs to pay attention to them.  
  
He had spent the day ignoring his instinct and convincing himself it had all been a dream and had wasted precious time.  
  
"I'll save them," he whispered with all the conviction he could muster, suddenly afraid the woman would rescind her offer and he wouldn't have more chances.  
  
"Do it," she said before disappearing again.  
  
Sanji closed his eyes again and exhaled painfully: his last breath before everything began again.  
  
...


	3. Day 2

The first thing Sanji saw when he opened his eyes was Zoro's face scowling down at him.  
  
_Not again_, he thought blinking owlishly to dispel the last shreds of the nightmare he had been having.  
  
"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," he replied, standing up from the bench and moving to the door, and then he froze.  
  
_You've wasted a day, do you really want to save them?_  
  
Everything from his not-dream came back to him suddenly, abruptly, his breath hitching in his chest and his eyes tightly shut. No, it had been a dream, a nightmare. He was there--breathing, alive--and Zoro was just a step behind him and his palpable annoyance at Sanji, who was blocking the door frozen in horror, was something no corpse could radiate so clearly.  
  
Sanji managed to move at the irritated tapping of heavy feet at his back, crossing the door without looking back and climbing to the Crow's Nest. He had to fight the impulse to go into the girls' cabin and check they were alive, breathing and pretty in their undisturbed sleep.  
  
Everything had been a nightmare, it had to. He wouldn't believe otherwise. _Exactly like yesterday_, a voice piped inside his head, _and look where that took you._  
  
He stood on the Crow's Nest looking out at the dark waters, the moon reflected in them eerily red tinted.  
  
Red Moon, a bad omen if there ever was one.  
  
A shiver ran down thought Sanji's spine. He knew he had thought exactly the same thing before. He had been there, looking out and had noticed the red moon reflected on the black waters and thought the exact same fucking thing. And if he kept thinking everything had been a dream the same thing was going to happen again.  
  
Sanji could remember the woman now; that strange old lady with the sweet and lovely voice and the kind eyes. The one who'd given him a chance to save his nakama.  
  
You welcome_ Death? _You welcome_ me?_  
  
Death, yeah why not? They had dealt with zombies before; Death itself wasn't that much of a stretch to believe in. And apparently, she didn't want to take the Straw Hats, or at least not all of them. Sanji didn't know why and didn't much care as long as he was allowed to keep his nakama out of her grasp.  
  
But how? It wasn't as if he had any fucking idea on how to get around doing it. Against an unseen enemy strong enough to wipe the entire crew Sanji had little to no hope, even knowing in advance what was going to happen.  
  
He racked his brain, eyes fixed on the water. There had to be a solution, a way to do it, or the woman was just letting him struggle for nothing. And that he couldn't believe.  
  
He thought about the black ship; it was old and decrepit, looking like the ghost ships the cooks at his first job told stories about: the ships of the dead, sailing the Grand Line looking for victims to take to hell.  
  
Sanji could believe it had been one of them had he believed in ghosts. He didn't. Yes, it was creepy and the flag was even worse. The hooded enemies they had tried to fight were ghost-like: intangible, silent and immobile. But there had been something solid aboard the Sunny, he had touched it, he had kicked it.  
  
And if Sanji knew something for sure was that one couldn't kick ghosts.  
  
There had to be a perfectly normal explanation, the Grand Line was full of weirdoes using Devil's Fruit powers. He just needed to find the one which matched what he knew.  
  
And that was where he found the first problem. Sanji was no idiot, but he had to admit research when it wasn't about food, wasn't his forte. With time and patience he might be able to find what he was looking for; unfortunately, time was something he didn't have.  
  
He needed help.  
  
…  
  
"I need your inestimable assistance for something, Robin-chan," Sanji said the moment she settled on the Crow's Nest, elbows resting on the windowsill and her pretty face propped on her hands.  
  
Robin turned to look at him, her mouth opening slightly in a yawn. Last watch was one of the worst, the poor unfortunate soul assigned to it having to wake up way too early, and Sanji felt a prickle of regret for bothering her when she was half asleep.  
  
"Of course Cook-san," she said her voice low and drowsy. Sanji hid a smile, happy to be allowed to see such a vulnerable side of her even in those grim circumstances. "What would you need from me?"  
  
Sanji's heart leapt inside his chest, what he wouldn't give to hear those words coming from her mouth when she was fully conscious and they didn't have Death hanging over them. But he couldn't let himself be distracted by his fantasies, not now.  
  
"About Devil's Fruits," he began slowly, his mind going over the way to phrase it in a way Robin, who was way more intelligent than should be allowed, didn't guess something was amiss. "I am curious to know if there is one which would make people ghost-like, intangible and invisible."  
  
She turned and smiled at him, her lips quirking in amusement and a mischievous light in her half-lidded eyes. "You're not thinking how to peek in the girl's cabin, are you Cook-san?"  
  
Sanji felt his face heating at the implication but couldn't help but return the smile. It was clear she was teasing. "I'd never dream of it! I would never tarnish our beautiful relationship with such an untoward act, my dear Robin-chan!"  
  
Her smile said she only believed half of it, but it was better for him that she thought he wanted to peek than to ask too many questions.  
  
"I don't know of it," she said turning to look at the ocean again, "I'm not an expert in Devil's Fruit, though I read about them when I was a kid. Something like what you have described wasn't in any book I read about."  
  
Sanji tried not look too disappointed at that answer but Robin must have felt something for she turned to look at him again and one of her hands--the real ones--grabbed his for a second, squeezing lightly before letting go and turning to look at the ocean again.  
  
"I can check later if you want, Cook-san," she said, "I might have a book I the subject in my collection. It never hurts to double check."  
  
"Thank you, Robin-chan," Sanji said allowing himself a bit of hope. "I will be in your debt forever. I'll go to start breakfast now, do you want anything special? My undying devotion?"  
  
"Thank you, Cook-san but the usual is already special enough."  
  
…  
  
Sanji had not taken the storm into account and cursed himself for a fool for it.  
  
Breakfast was exactly the same as the previous time, cheerful and noisy and as peaceful as the Straw Hats would ever manage anything when they were together.  
  
Sanji kept thinking about his conversation with Robin in the Crow's Nest. So far as she knew there weren't any Devil's Fruit which would make people intangible, he best they could achieve was invisibility--and Sanji had already kicked that one as much as he needed.  
  
So it wasn't any known Fruit, or at least not one of the common ones. If there was something like that it might be recorded in some sort of book but Robin had not read about it. Sanji believed that something Robin had not heard about would probably not exist, which left him with another problem.  
  
If it wasn't a Devil's Fruit Sanji had no idea what could it be.  
  
His thought process was cut short at Franky's shout, the rest of the morning spent trying to weather the storm with his crewmates, rushing over the deck at Nami's orders and doing everything they could.  
  
When they finally fell on the deck exhausted Sanji had not found a solution. He needed more information and there was only one way to get it. He was loath to admit he wasn't going to save everyone tonight, but it was likely he would fail.  
  
Waiting was the worst part.  
  
Sanji entered the kitchen and busied himself with dinner preparations just to have something to keep him occupied, and also so his nakama didn't find anything amiss. There was no point worrying everyone, at least not yet.  
  
Right on time, the door to the kitchen opened and Zoro came in, the heavy sound of his booted feet on the floor making it impossible to mistake him for anyone else. Sanji kept on cutting his vegetables, knowing Zoro was going to sit there and just stare until he said something.  
  
For a moment he entertained the idea of staying silent, not giving the marimo the pleasure of getting a reaction out of him, but a few moments of those eyes digging into the back of his head were more than enough to make him reconsider it.  
  
"What are you doing here, Marimo?" Sanji finally said, the sooner he got it over with, the sooner he could focus on the important thing. "Don't you have anyone else to annoy?"  
  
He waited out the answer, knowing it would take a few seconds.  
  
"Something bothering you, Cook?" Zoro said as he expected.  
  
Suddenly the idea of having that same argument with the marimo, the argument they never got to finish the previous day, wasn't appealing at all.  
  
Sanji had already resigned himself to consider that day as wasted--he had not been able to figure out the way to beat his enemies, had been unable to get more information than what Robin had given him in the morning. He was going to just watch and observe, really map out the events in his head and try to stay as calm as possible. It would be hard not to lose his head when everything he held dear was destroyed in front of his eyes, but he had to learn.  
  
The last thing he needed was to let himself be distracted by the marimo.  
  
"No, nothing is bothering me," he said without turning, hoping that by ignoring Zoro he would get the hint and leave.  
  
No such luck, Zoro was stubborn among many other things. "No, you have been staring at me since I woke up two days ago. Is there something you wanna tell me?"  
  
"No, I want you to stop pestering me and leave me to make dinner in peace," Sanji retorted, finally turning to look at him.  
  
A strange expression passed through Zoro's face, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to say something but was unsure of what he was going to say. His brow furrowed, puzzlement evident for a second before he scowled and grabbed his bottle, nodding to himself and moving to the door.  
  
Sanji stared at him, wondering what had that been about. It hit him then, he had changed the script and Zoro had felt something different, almost as if he knew he was supposed to act in a specific way and he had missed his cue.  
  
Weird. Sanji didn't know the meaning of what had just happened, but something told him it was important.  
  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he knew was coming. Any minute now.  
  
"Pirates!"  
  
Sanji rushed outside, almost colliding against Zoro who was just standing in front of the door as if he was not sure what he was doing there, the bottle of Rum he had snatched from the kitchen unopened in his hand.  
  
Zoro turned to look at him, his brow furrowed with the same puzzled expression he had before. "Damn, I didn't have time to finish dinner," Sanji said observing Zoro's reaction.  
  
His expression cleared, the confusion replaced by something sharper and infinitely more Zoro.  
  
"I hope they don't take too long to be defeated," Sanji said letting his mouth run freely, his eyes studying Zoro's.  
  
"You can always go back inside, Cook, and let us deal with the problem," he said with a smirk.  
  
"Nah, I've wanted to kick some ass for a couple of days," Sanji got a cigarette out of his pocket and inhaled the smoke, letting himself be calmed momentarily by the nicotine, "and since you are still recovering and will have to pass on this one, I guess I'll stay."  
  
Zoro's expression turned murderous, his hands resting on the hilt of his swords, "Who says I can't fight?"  
  
Sanji looked around marking everyone's position in his mind. Nami and Robin were by the left rail, a few feet short of the head. Brooke was close to them, a couple of steps behind with Chopper at his right. Usopp was in the Crow's Nest and looked ready to climb down to where Franky was next to the main mast. Luffy had climbed on to the figure head, stretching his neck as far as he could.  
  
"Ew, that has to be the most disgusting Jolly Roger I've seen." That was the signal; Sanji narrowed his eyes and prepared himself to commit everything--however hard or hurtful it was--to memory.  
  
The eight hooded figures materialized in the exact same spots Sanji knew they would; he had felt them coming but this time he didn't bother moving from where he was. The figure appeared on top of Sanji, his image superimposing over his more substantial body so to anyone looking it would have seemed Sanji was covered by a translucent hooded cloak.  
  
But it had no substance, it was just an image.  
  
Sanji shuddered and moved the feeling of wrongness so strong it almost made him psychically ill. He looked around trying to see where the next hit would come from but there was nothing to see. The blow came anyway, taking his breath away with the force of it. He dodged the next one and retreated to the other side of the deck to check on his nakama.  
  
Luffy was trying to punch thin air, attacking relentlessly the hooded image in front of him, his arms stretching through it. He was taking some minor damage, kicks and blows bouncing off his rubber body and not harming him much, but he was getting annoyed and impatient. Usopp was close to the main mast, his Great Pachinko in his hands trying to locate a target he couldn't see. He must have noticed it when his first hit missed the target and was not falling for the trap again. But that didn't mean he could find his intended enemy.  
  
Robin had her hands crossed in front of her face, her eyes narrowed in concentration. There were the only hands she was using at the time, gaze darting around her trying to find something. Nami was next to her, almost back to back trying to conjure some kind of trick with her clima tact.  
  
Sanji felt the air moving next to his head and quickly snapped his attention back to his own fight, moving aside as fast as he could at the hit he knew was coming. He had a flash of memory from the previous time and hurriedly took out one of his cigarettes, lighting it and blowing the smoke in front of him. He saw a blurry face coming at him full speed, an animal face eyes alight with malice and then he saw no more.  
  
…  
  
"They are not human."  
  
The old lady was standing over him again, her expression clearly disapproving and Sanji knew it was over again. Everything was painful, every breath excruciating. He had not expected anything less but at least this time he had missed the end of the show.  
  
Changing his reactions had an effect, though he was not sure it was the one he wanted to achieve. This time he had gone down sooner than anyone else.  
  
But there was something he knew for sure, the enemies were not those fucking hooded bastards, those were decoys.  
  
_They were, once,_ she said, her expression softening. _I thought you gave up but I can see the determination in your gaze. But can you afford to waste another chance?_  
  
Sanji inhaled some much-needed air, the pain in his chest exploding and almost making him pass out.  
  
"No, I can't," he said, each word feeling like sandpaper being rubbed against his throat. Damn, they had done even more damage this time, it was a miracle he still retained some consciousness. "But I can't defeat what I can't understand."  
  
She nodded approvingly and smiled her face turning into that of a stunningly beautiful young woman.  
  
_Your time is now, she said, hold out for longer tomorrow and you will know more._  
  
Sanji wanted to know, wanted to ask more questions but darkness was closing around him and he couldn't breathe anymore. He managed a weak nodded and closed his eyes.  
  
…


	4. Day 3

"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake."  
  
And he was; more awake than he'd been in a long time, his mind clear and already working on the problem. It was the third day and he was back to the beginning.  
  
He rushed out of the door and climbed up to the Crow's Nest, leaning against the window and watching the peaceful night ocean, the blood tinted moon reflected on the black waters, while he let his mind wander.  
  
What did he learn the previous day? An animal face swarm into his mind, the details clearer in his memory than they actually were when he saw it: a feline face, sharp and cruel eyes, patched face with two black lines descending from the eyes. Sanji had never seen that kind of animal but he had heard and seen pictures of it. That would explain the speed of the thing, for one.  
  
They were not human, or so the woman had said, but they had been once. That left an explanation, and only one, Sanji could think about. Zoan Fruit users. How the fuck did they manage the other trick was the question if Sanji's assumption was right.  
  
That was what he needed to discover.  
  
And the clock was ticking so no more nights gathering information. He really couldn't afford them.  
  
What else had he discovered? There had been that thing with the marimo. Zoro had felt something different when Sanji didn't argue with him as if he was expecting to hear something and when he didn't he didn't know how to react. That was odd, more than odd considering Robin had not acted in any way strangely when Sanji stayed with her in the Crow's Nest the previous morning.  
  
Why Zoro? And exactly what was he felt? Maybe it was worth investigating that but Sanji knew he had little to no time for it. There was that storm, which arrived after breakfast like clockwork and lasted until just before dinner.  
  
Maybe if they changed the course--but he would need to explain why he wanted to, and wake Nami-san up right about now for it. And if they varied their course they would never reach Fishman Island or even leave the Florian Triangle, if he ever managed to convince Nami-san he wasn't insane. They had no Eternal Pose, only the Log Pose pointing in the direction they were going now.  
  
There was no other way but forward for them.  
  
Anyway, Sanji had the feeling the Black Ship would find them even if they weren't in the same place.  
  
What he knew so far was that he alone wasn't strong enough to defeat them, if only he could count with the help of one of his nakama--the obvious answer there was either Luffy or the marimo. They were the strongest among the crew but Luffy's strength was useless against things he couldn't see, and Zoro was still recovering from his injuries.  
  
Usopp and Chopper were out of the question, he didn't want to involve the kids, and so were the girls. He didn't know Brooke enough for him to believe what Sanji said and the thought of explaining everything to Franky--no, it had to be Zoro, he was probably the only one who would believe Sanji, he already felt something strange. Or he did the previous time.  
  
His mind made up, he just needed to find a way to explain everything to Zoro so the idiot would believe him.  
  
…  
  
"Oi Marimo, it's your turn with the dishes," Sanji said when everyone was getting up from the table after breakfast.  
  
Zoro turned to look at him, frowning. Technically it wasn't but Sanji needed to get Zoro alone and see if he could talk to him. Everyone had been surprised seeing the usually opulent breakfast Sanji made in the mornings wasn't there. It wasn't frugal by any means, Sanji knew the storm was coming and they needed the energy, but it wasn't the normal varied feast.  
  
Nobody remarked on it, probably guessing Sanji had other things on his mind. And anyway, the food was still excellent and there was enough meat in it to keep Luffy happy.  
  
The only person who had given an enquiring look at Sanji was Zoro, and he kept staring at him the entire time they were eating. Sanji was convinced now, he had to tell him and get his help.  
  
"It was Usopp's turn," Zoro said when the door closed behind the last of the crew. He went to the sink anyway, giving Sanji a sideways look.  
  
Sanji shrugged and began washing the dishes, buying time to put his thoughts in something resembling order.  
  
"Something bothering you, Cook?" Zoro asked and Sanji stopped for a second. _Not that conversation!_ That one was scheduled for later.  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"No, you have been staring at me since I woke up two days ago," Zoro insisted. Apparently, they were going to have that conversation a bit earlier. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"  
  
"Yes, and try to listen to what I have to say. It's important."  
  
"If you want to talk about Kuma and--"  
  
"This is not about Thriller Bark," Sanji interrupted him and Zoro turned to look at him at that, the confused frown Sanji already expected creasing his brow.  
  
Zoro shook his head as if dislodging an unpleasant thought. "Is it not?"  
  
"No, we'll have that conversation another time. Now I have to tell you--"  
  
"All hands on deck!" Franky bellowed and Zoro stared at Sanji for a second longer than necessary before rushing outside to deal with the storm.  
  
_Damn!_ He had not been able to get much time and couldn't explain anything to the marimo but at least the other conversation, the one he knew now they were always going to have anyway, was out of the way.  
  
He hoped to have more luck after the storm and ran outside.  
  
…  
  
This has definitely sounded like a better idea in his head in the morning. Now he wasn't so sure.  
  
"Have you been at the wine again, Cook?" Zoro asked the expression on his face one of the utmost disbelief.  
  
Sanji narrowed his eyes, annoyed.  
  
He had thought it would be easier to explain everything to Zoro, especially considering the idiot already felt something was off, but he had not taken into account how crazy it all sounded when it fell from his lips. Actually, were their positions reversed he'd have a hard time believing it too.  
  
But they weren't, and he had to make the marimo believe him before Usopp gave the alarm.  
  
"No, I have not. What I'm telling you it's the truth."  
  
Zoro sat on the bench, staring at Sanji with an arched eyebrow. "You want me to believe we're going to be attacked by creepy dead Zoans and they're going to kill us all," Zoro said slowly, the words sounding all the more ridiculous than they had before. Sanji cursed under his breath.  
  
"Yes, you fucker," he said gritting his teeth. Why had he thought this was a good idea? "You know something is happening, don't you?"  
  
Zoro regarded him seriously, the mocking expression disappearing from his face.  
  
"I know something is happening all right," he said frowning, "something is happening _with you._ You're acting weird--weirder than usual. Is this about Kuma again?"  
  
Sanji threw his hands up in exasperation. "No you moron, it's not!" Time was running out, he was torn between the urge to kick some sense into the moron's thick head and rush outside to check how much time they had.  
  
Not much; that he knew.  
  
"Then what is this about?" Zoro asked crossing his arms in front of him. "Is this your idea of a joke?"  
  
_For fuck's sake!_  
  
"Would I joke about something like this?" he asked, his eyes narrowed to slits and his anger and frustration at the idiot's reaction starting to show.  
  
"You seriously expect me to believe--"  
  
Sanji cut him off abruptly, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet, their faces scant inches apart, eyes glaring hotly at one another.  
  
"Come outside, you moss-headed bastard," he said almost dragging Zoro out of the door. "Look," he pointed at Usopp who was leaning out of the Crow's Nest window, his eyes narrowed and staring at a far off point in the darkening ocean. "Any second now."  
  
"Pirates!"  
  
Sanji stared at Zoro who was staring right back, his disbelieving expression turning confused. "Damn, I didn't have time to finish dinner," Sanji said deliberately taking a shot, watching Zoro's face. He had not even started with it but that was beside the point. "I hope they don't take too long to be defeated." He arched up his eyebrow and continued before Zoro had the chance to open his mouth. "You can always go back inside, Cook, and let us deal with the problem," he said his voice an octave lower to mimic Zoro's growly voice.  
  
Zoro narrowed his eyes. "Nah, I've wanted to kick some ass for a couple of days," Sanji parroted in his normal voice, "and since you are still recovering and will have to pass on this one, I guess I'll stay." And then he changed again to _Zoro's_, who was staring at him with an expression of dawning horror. "Who says I can't fight?"  
  
"What?" Zoro finally managed to say.  
  
"Believe now?" Sanji asked pointedly, "You will see the hideous ship in a minute, and it's creepy as all get-out and they are going to kill every single one of us, so fucking believe me already!"  
  
Zoro kept staring at him, frozen. "Ew, that has to be the most disgusting Jolly Roger I've seen." Sanji mouthed at the same time Nami's voice reached them from the other side of the deck.  
  
That was it, Zoro screwed his eyes shut and gulped, opening them again and glaring at Sanji. But at least now there was no doubt in them.  
  
"Look at it now, Marimo, the Black Ship," Sanji's voice had turned frantic and almost pleading. He noticed how the words had acquired capitals in his mind and voice and thought distractedly that it suited it.  
  
Zoro was looking at the ship and his features were forming an alien expression on his face. He looked scared.  
  
"So we die tonight," Zoro said, almost a whisper. He took a deep breath and schooled his features in something Sanji was more familiar with: determination. "You sure they can kill us, Cook?" He allowed himself a relieved sigh.  
  
"No, if we can do something about it," Sanji said, getting ready to fight. "Ignore the hooded ones, they are not real," he said hurriedly. "You won't see the enemies, at least not clearly but don't let yourself be distracted by the other things."  
  
He saw Zoro's tiny nod of acceptance while he untied his bandana and put it around his head, the true signal of his seriousness.  
  
"You'll have to explain things later," Zoro said scowling as the hooded figures materialized on the deck, "for now we beat these things."  
  
…  
  
It was easier said than done, that much was clear.  
  
Even with the warning, it wasn't easy for Zoro to beat enemies he couldn't see, Sanji could see that clearly. There was also the fact that the marimo wasn't in top form, not after Kuma and Thriller Bark.  
  
Sanji focused on his own problems, he already knew it was dangerous getting distracted in this fight. He took a hit to the ribs; the pain exploding on his side and making him double over, coughing.  
  
"Fuck!" he jumped quickly backwards and found himself back to back with the marimo, who was panting heavily and bleeding from a shallow cut on the forehead, blood streaming down his face.  
  
"What are these things?" Zoro asked his voice strained.  
  
"Damned if I know!"  
  
Sanji exhaled the smoke from his cigarette in front of him, hoping to see the shimmering outline of the thing he was fighting. There was nothing.  
  
There was a grunt behind him and he spared a quick look to see Zoro crumbling on the deck, winded.  
  
"Fucking bastards," Zoro said pushing himself up with the help of his swords.  
  
Sanji exhaled again, this time the smoke drifting toward the marimo and struck gold. There was that feline face coming at them at full speed. Zoro had seen it too and he had his swords ready for it.  
  
He cut the thing at the same time the first gunshot tore the air and Sanji swore. _"Fuck, Usopp!"_  
  
Zoro mirrored his thought with a loud scream. "Usopp! Luffy!"  
  
He tried to move toward them and suddenly the thing he had just killed stood up, clearly visible for the first time. It was a Zoan user all right, too similar to that Lucci bastard for Sanji's peace of mind. He was only half transformed, Zoro's white katana firmly lodged in his chest. It was a killing blow if Sanji had ever seen one but the thing stood again and dragged the sword off him inch by inch. There was no blood on it.  
  
"What?" Zoro's attention was back on the thing and Sanji knew what was going to happen and really didn't want to see it.  
  
Nami and Robin had stopped screaming by then, probably fallen like the rest of their crewmates, only Sanji and Zoro still standing.  
  
There was another gunshot and this time Sanji felt it as well as heard it, the air leaving his lungs on a pained scream, the front of his suit dripping with blood. Zoro turned to look at him, horror and despair clear in his gaze.  
  
"Sanji!" his words turned into a wet gurgle and he coughed up blood, falling face first on the deck, Wadou Ichimonji sticking out of his back.  
  
Sanji felt like throwing up. It wasn't the physical pain, he was getting used to that, but Zoro's expression seeing, _knowing_ what was going to happen what made him feel ill. And that was all Sanji's fault.  
  
He had wanted to share the burden with someone and had forgotten how fucking heavy it was. And Zoro's last minutes had been agony for that, knowing everyone was going to die and being unable to stop it.  
  
He should have known better.  
  
"I have to do it alone," he said feeling more tired than he had been in his entire life.  
  
_Yes._  
  
The woman was back, staring at him with those damned knowing eyes.  
  
_Most people are not strong enough to fight a lost battle._  
  
"We are not most people."  
  
_I know, and that's the reason I gave you this chance._  
  
Sanji nodded. "So they were human once, uh?" He said fumbling for the last cigarette on his pocket. Chain-smoking during the battle had been the only way he could think about to help him see those fuckers, but surely there had to be another way. "Bloody Zoans, at least a couple of them. Why didn't they die when the marimo killed them?"  
  
_Dead things can't die again._  
  
It made sense, somehow, but-- "Dead things are not supposed to stand up and fight either."  
  
The woman smiled as if she was pleased with that answer. Sanji was grateful for her help but he was getting sick of half-answers and riddles. He wanted to know more but his consciousness was fading.  
  
_You know they sometimes can,_ she was saying while Sanji's world narrowed more and more, his vision blurring and being swallowed by darkness.  
  
_Someone or something else is helping them,_ Sanji wanted to say but it was already too late.  
  
It would have to wait for another day.  
  
…


	5. Day 4

"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," Sanji replied, closing his eyes tiredly. Not again, he had failed again and the days kept counting. He had been unable, so far, to save even one of them.  
  
He looked up at Zoro, scanning his face to see if there was some sign that he remembered the previous day's events. There was none, Zoro was looking back at him with a quizzical expression at Sanji's stillness as if he was waiting for Sanji's signal to move.  
  
With a sigh Sanji stood up, "Ok, ok I'm going already," he muttered under his breath, dragging his feet all the way to the Crow's Nest, his reticence to start a new day coming off him in waves.  
  
He ignored Zoro's inquisitive stare until the marimo gave up and looked away from the Crow's Nest with a shrug, going back inside the galley and into the men's cabin. That was good if there was someone Sanji didn't feel like facing at that particular time it was the marimo.  
  
Not after last night.  
  
Sanji was still feeling guilty not only for failing, again but also because he had dragged the marimo into his particular version of hell. For people like them, whose most prominent desire was attaining the strength to protect those they held dear, being unable to do so was the worst sort of punishment.  
  
He had been enduring it for some days already and knew perfectly well how awful it felt, he didn't know what had possessed him to believe Zoro would deal with it better. _His face._ Sanji knew it was a face he was going to see in his nightmares for a long time if they ever managed to survive the next days.  
  
And he wasn't so sure anymore they would.  
  
He remembered that thing the previous night: standing up with a sword lodged in his chest and removing it, ever so slowly, not a drop of blood staining the steel or dripping from the body. Sanji has only seen that happening with the zombies at Thriller Bark, but these fuckers weren't zombies, that much he knew.  
  
What in the seven hells were they?  
  
_Dead things can't die again._ That was what the woman said and Sanji believed it. After seeing what he saw there was no way he wouldn't.  
  
There was something else, she had implied that much. Something pulling the strings and enjoying the show. Fuck, his head hurt just thinking about it. He needed to know more about the enemy to defeat it, but the more he knew about them the more he was convinced there was no way to defeat them.  
  
If he kept thinking like that he was as good as dead. And so were his nakama.  
  
_Dead things can't die again._  
  
That kept bothering him for some reason. Why? Why couldn't he stop thinking about that? So far all his conversations with the old woman had been cryptic, but she had been trying to help him, feeding him information in that roundabout and slow way. There had to be a clue hidden there, he was convinced.  
  
If only he wasn't so tired and so heartsick he would be able to see it.  
  
What he needed to do was detach himself from the situation, something easier said than done and really think about it.  
  
_You have one chance for each of them._ That was the first thing she had said to him. One chance for each of them. He had not managed to save anyone yet but he still had a few more tries.  
  
Why was that still bothering him?  
  
_There are eight fragments, seven may stay. You have seven attempts to put things back to rights._ Which meant there was someone he wasn't going to be able to save.  
  
Well, he had known since the beginning there was going to be a price, and he was willing to pay it. If someone was going to die in the end Sanji never had a doubt of who was it going to be. But--  
  
_You have one chance for each of them._  
  
Luffy.  
  
Zoro.  
  
Nami.  
  
Usopp.  
  
Chopper.  
  
Robin.  
  
Franky.  
  
Brook.  
  
No matter how many times he went over it in his head the numbers didn't add up. She had said seven out of eight, which meant--  
  
_Dead things can't die again._  
  
Oh fuck! That was it. He had been so blind and stupid, the answer in front of his eyes clear as day.  
  
He looked up and watched the sky, checking to see if the red moon was still reflected in the waters and how much longer he had to wait for his watch to be over.  
  
He needed to go talk to Brook.  
  
…  
  
He greeted Robin the moment she stepped into the Crow's Nest and climbed down as if the hounds of hell were at his heels, entering the men's cabin and going straight to Brook's hammock.  
  
It was way too early for anyone except the person on watch to be awake, but he knew Brook was different. Dead things couldn't die again and apparently didn't need to sleep either.  
  
"Brook," he said in a whisper, hoping it wouldn't carry. Brook turned to look at him, his empty sockets focused on Sanji's face. He suppressed a shudder, it was hard to get used to that and in that situation, it was way too creepy.  
  
"Sanji? Something wrong?" Brook asked his voice matching Sanji's.  
  
"No, but I need to talk to you. Can you come to the kitchen while I prepare breakfast?"  
  
Brook nodded and got up from his hammock, noiselessly following Sanji out of the cabin. Under normal circumstances, he would wait until breakfast was over to speak to anyone. This was the only time of day he really had for himself before his rowdy nakama were awake and creating the usual mayhem aboard the ship.  
  
But these were not normal circumstances.  
  
Sanji went straight to the counter and started preparing the food the instant they were alone in the kitchen, the movements and routine soothing his nerves and buying him some time to order his thoughts.  
  
Brook waited patiently for him to speak, watching him with a thoughtful expression--or as thoughtful as a skeleton could make.  
  
"I am curious, Brook," Sanji finally began, turning on the stove and putting the rice on the fire. "Your Devil's Fruit power is to resurrect. Does that mean you can't die?"  
  
Brook looked at him for a long instant, the weight of his stare heavy. He might feel the seriousness of the situation because he didn't make any skeleton joke, which Sanji deeply appreciated.  
  
"I am already dead," Brook finally said his voice low and serious.  
  
"And dead things can't die again," Sanji finished for him. He nodded to himself; he had guessed that much though he didn't know which was worse. Brook might survive drowning but he certainly wouldn't enjoy spending the rest of eternity chained to his dead nakama.  
  
"Exactly," Brook said. "Where did you hear that, Sanji?" There was something in Brook's voice that made Sanji turn and look at him. "It's a curious way of saying it. Dead _things_, not people. Things."  
  
Sanji shrugged. "Nowhere," he lied, "I was just curious. Thinking--"  
  
"About Kuma and what happened with Zoro?" Brook took a guess and Sanji was relieved to notice he was far off the mark. He hadn't thought about the marimo and his death wish since everything started--it felt like ages ago to him.  
  
Sanji shrugged again. "Not really," he said knowing Brook wasn't going to believe him.  
  
He didn't. "But you know there is only one of each fruit," Brook said with a slight smile, "Even if you wanted to have one to protect everyone, you can't."  
  
"I know."  
  
"And trust me on this; you wouldn't like it. No matter what happens to your body you can keep on living, the wounds may or may not heal, it doesn’t matter. As long as you can stand you can carry on. Even if you can't you still live. And seeing everything and everyone you care about turn to dust while you have to keep living. It's painful. "  
  
_No shit!_ Sanji almost blurted, instead, he just nodded again hoping Brook wasn't able to see anything in his expression.  
  
"But I'd love to see _her_ one more time," Brook said dreamily and Sanji startled at that.  
  
"Her?"  
  
"Yes, the young girl whom I tricked," Brook winked lecherously, "I never got to see her panties."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Sanji said trying to control his voice not to squeak. Brook had seen her, maybe he still could.  
  
"Death. She's a lovely girl, pretty and young and with a voice like an angel." He sighed. "And she said she wouldn't be taking me anywhere ever again after I tricked her with the Devil's Fruit. Such a pity."  
  
Sanji wanted to say something else when the door opened and a bleary Robin entered the kitchen signalling the end of the conversation.  
  
…  
  
The storm shook the ship with the same violence as the previous times, the Straw Hats rushing to and fro at Nami's shouted orders, the strain in their faces clear for everyone to see.  
  
Sanji just moved on autopilot, his mind going over his conversation with Brook. That wasn't good, it wasn't good at all.  
  
If he was to believe everything Brook had told him, and he had no reason to doubt him, nothing could destroy de physical bodies of their enemies. Nothing short of a chainsaw and a lot of patience.  
  
And the one the woman had hinted about, the one pulling the strings, was a complete mystery to Sanji.  
  
He was beginning to run out of ideas.  
  
The moment the storm was over Sanji rushed to the kitchen, still deep in thought. Kicking those bastards seemed to do close to no damage, the same with punching them and even stabbing. Maybe he was going about it the wrong way, if only he knew how to find out the one behind the attack.  
  
Taking out the leader was usually a good way to stop an attacking crew. The only problem was that he had no idea how to recognize the leader or where to find him.  
  
"Something bothering you, Cook?" Zoro's voice snapped him out of his reverie and Sanji almost jumped out of his skin.  
  
He had forgotten about his scheduled conversation with the marimo, but after the previous night, Zoro was the last person Sanji wanted to see. He wasn't sure he could face him.  
  
There was no way to avoid that conversation, though. Not if his previous experiences were anything to go by.  
  
"_You_ are bothering me," he replied without turning. Better to get it over with.  
  
"No, you have been staring at me since I woke up two days ago. Is there something you wanna tell me?"  
  
He still didn't turn, his eyes fixed on the empty chopping board on the counter. He had not bothered with dinner, too preoccupied with his own thoughts.  
  
"No," he said after a long silence and waited for the noise which marked the departure of Zoro from his kitchen. It took longer than he thought but in the end, he heard the door closing and was alone with his thoughts again.  
  
He still wasn't close to resolving the riddle.  
  
It felt like an eternity until he heard Usopp's shout, and following a strange impulse Sanji grabbed his sharpest and most wicked looking knives and went outside.  
  
Zoro was standing in front of the door as Sanji had expected, and he turned to look at him the moment he appeared. His eyes moved to Sanji's hands and noticed the knives, eyebrows crawling up his forehead in surprise.  
  
"What the fuck, Cook?"  
  
Sanji ignored him walking up to Nami and Robin and standing with them next to the railing when the Black Ship finally appeared.  
  
"Ew, that has to be the most disgusting Jolly Roger I've seen."  
  
"I know," Sanji muttered under his breath and got ready. If his kicks had no effect he'd try slicing and dicing the fuckers. Maybe with enough time, he'd be able to do enough damage for the things to stay, if not dead, at least still.  
  
…  
  
Not seeing them made it hard for Sanji to cut them. He had failed to take that into account and there was no way he could use smoke while he had his hands otherwise occupied.  
  
He bumped into Nami while avoiding a blow, dodging low and almost hitting his head with her clima tact. That was it!  
  
"Nami-san! Use the clima tact to create a fog; we'll see them that way!" He shouted excited and she stared at him, her pretty eyes widening slightly before she nodded her face the picture of determination.  
  
In an instant, the Sunny was covered in a thick blanket of fog, the shapes of the attackers finally visible for the tired crew. It was difficult to fight that way when you didn't know if one of your nakama was close, but it was better than nothing.  
  
Sanji could see them almost clearly now: there were ten of them, not eight as he had first thought. All were Zoans of some kind, predators the whole lot of fuckers. Their bodies were only half transformed, taking advantage of most features of both sides.  
  
Sanji had two enemies all for himself, one of them the one he had seen before and a panther-looking woman. For once he had no qualms fighting a girl, not if that girl was trying to kill his friends. And besides, she was already dead, wasn't she?  
  
Sanji fought for what it felt like an eternity, all his senses focused only in what he was doing. Cut, retreat, dodge, kick, cut, slice, repeat, repeat, repeat. He was panting with exertion, his suit jacket ripped in different parts and his shirt drenched in sweat. He had no idea how long he had been fighting and he had not heard anything from his nakama, his mind filled with white noise and his own thoughts. He knew he had been hitting his enemies, cutting them though his knives were as clean as if he had not used them. But the things still came after him.  
  
Suddenly the fog lifted; startling Sanji so much he almost missed his step and fell on the deck.  
  
The scene in front of his eyes made him wish he had been killed already.  
  
The only thing standing on the deck were the attackers, the rest of the crew conspicuously missing except for the places where their blood pooled. So much blood.  
  
Sanji thought he was going to be sick.  
  
He let his knives fell from his hands and stood still, closing his eyes to wait for the merciful shot that would restart the day.  
  
It rang loud and true in the silent ship.  
  
…  
  
"They won't die," Sanji said angrily looking at the woman.  
  
He had managed to avoid most of the damage, though his condition was far from good. He was dying, again, but at least this time he had minutes instead of seconds. He intended to make use of them.  
  
_No, they won't. They are already dead, I told you._  
  
"How do I defeat them then?" He asked trying to stand from his position leaning against the railing. A fresh wave of pain hit him, blurring his vision for a moment.  
  
_You can't,_ she finally admitted sadly, _Not in the way you think about defeat._  
  
Sanji sighed and closed his eyes, exhausted. He had feared that was going to be the answer. "Why? Why are you doing this to me then? To us?" he asked in a choked whisper. "If we were supposed to die just let us die, but I can't keep seeing them fall before my eyes all the time. I just can't."  
  
She was looking at him with pity and something like disappointment and Sanji felt his blood boiling. _I thought you would be stronger than this._  
  
That did it, Sanji struggled to get up, ignoring the pain in his gut and the steady drip of his blood on the deck, and launched himself at the woman. "Are you having fun with this?" he shouted, falling through her image as if through a ghost. Of course, she wasn't really there. "Is this how you get your kicks?" he asked from the floor, closing his eyes in despair.  
  
_I do not enjoy suffering, I end it,_ she said, and she sounded offended. _Are you giving up now? Is this the extent of your determination to save your friends?_  
  
Sanji opened his eyes and glared at her, not answering. He wanted to say that no, he wasn't giving up now or ever but he couldn't.  
  
He was beginning to wonder if it wasn't too much to ask of him.  
  
She seemed to sense his hesitation and pain and relented. _They can't die but that doesn’t mean you all have to. There is a way, think about it and find it._  
  
She disappeared and Sanji closed his eyes and waited for the end.

...


	6. Day 5

"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," he said in a low whisper, despair and exhaustion clear in his voice. He couldn't do it anymore, couldn't stand the sight of his nakama dying around him for another day. The old woman was right, he wasn't strong enough.  
  
Zoro might have felt something strange in his voice because he didn't move, didn't leave the galley.  
  
"Are you sick, Cook?" Zoro asked, frowning.  
  
_Yes, I am. I am sick and tired of seeing you die every single night and being too fucking useless to stop it,_ Sanji was so tempted to say that, but he couldn't muster the energy for it. He just shrugged. "Go away Zoro, I'm fine," he said in the same defeated tone. Zoro looked like he wanted to protest, he opened his mouth and whatever it was he was going to say was cut off by a gigantic yawn. "Just go, I'll be in the Crow's Nest in a minute," Sanji said forestalling his protest and closing his eyes again.  
  
The silence in the galley was thick and filled with unspoken questions, Zoro still staring at Sanji, not leaving.  
  
It didn't take long for it to annoy the hell out of Sanji.  
  
He opened his eyes and glared at the silent marimo, the anger he was feeling disproportionate for the cause, but Sanji was too tired and hurt to care. He needed a good night sleep, or better make it a week. And he needed to know his friends would be there when he woke up.  
  
"Get the fuck out of here, Marimo," he snapped standing up and Zoro's worried frown melted into a scowl, his sleepiness vanishing in the wake of an expression Sanji was more used to, anger.  
  
"What is your problem, Cook?" Zoro growled taking a step toward him. "It's your fucking watch now, you want to ditch it?"  
  
Sanji fished inside his jacket pocket for a cigarette, lighting it and blowing the smoke on Zoro's face, gearing out for a fight. That was what he really needed to make him feel better, a fight he could win.  
  
That mere thought made his anger deflate.  
  
It wasn't Zoro the one he wanted to fight, the one he needed to defeat. And taking it out on him wasn't going to change the outcome of the night's events.  
  
Suddenly Sanji felt very, very tired again. Zoro was staring at him with narrowed eyes, hands on the hilt of his swords and his entire posture radiating menace, but he wasn't attacking, he was merely responding to Sanji's provocation.  
  
He shook his head and averted his eyes, turning to the door. "I'm going now, you go to sleep idiot. If we fight now and you get a single scratch on you Chopper will have my hide for it," he said before leaving.  
  
He heard Zoro say something which sounded suspiciously like _bastard cook_ but decided it was wisest to just ignore it.  
  
When he got to the Crow's Nest he rested with his back against the window, not wanting to see the crimson moon reflected in the black waters. Somehow it made him think of blood pooling on the Sunny like it had been the night before, and he was sure he wouldn't stand it.  
  
He needed to clear his head before facing another hellish day.  
  
His mind had other ideas, however. It kept going back to the previous night and his conversation with the old woman.  
  
He hadn't been thinking clearly when he tried to attack her, but it was too much to ask of him that he would keep his head after suffering everyone's death day after day. He was strong but he wasn't a monster. Nobody would be able to stand that for long.  
  
And Death--she had admitted they wouldn't be able to defeat those things. If that was true, why the fuck she kept making Sanji relive it again and again? Did she expect him to say "I give up, take us all"?  
  
If she did she was very close to getting what she wanted.  
  
But it couldn't be it, it just couldn't. She had been the one who gave him a chance, why give him hope only to make him suffer a fate worse than death?  
  
Just thinking about it was making Sanji get angry again, and this time he didn't even try to talk himself out of it.  
  
Anger was a thousand times better than hopelessness in his book.  
  
…  
  
By the time Robin arrived to take over the watch Sanji had worked himself into a state of rightful fury and was relishing the feeling. He had been so immersed in pain and despair for the past five days it was a welcomed change.  
  
He nursed the feeling all the way to breakfast: he was angry with the old woman for putting him through that shit, he was furious with his nakama for being oblivious to his suffering and dying on him again and again, but mostly he was livid with himself for being so fucking weak and feeling that way.  
  
It was vicious circle he didn't know how to break, so he got more and angrier instead.  
  
He worked on breakfast with short and jerky movements which would have made Zeff kick the shit out of him had he known, his knives hitting the cutting board with so much force Sanji knew they had to be leaving permanent marks. He didn't care; he had never felt so alone in his entire life and needed to take it out on something.  
  
In his mind, he kept calling his nakama every name in the book, the rational part of his brain cringing with shame at the unfairness of it.  
  
Luffy was a big oaf of a Captain who couldn't swim or navigate, had about the same common sense as a spoon and was always chasing after stupid adventures and getting them killed.  
  
Usopp was a big coward with an even bigger mouth, completely useless in a fight and so unreliable the only thing he was good for was to be the ship's clown.  
  
Chopper should've been eaten a long time ago for all the good he did in a fight.  
  
Franky was a perverted bastard whose only redeeming point was his skill at making weapons, weapons which had not saved anyone so he might as well have stayed in Water 7.  
  
Brook was dead and still needed rescuing again and again. One couldn't get more useless than that.  
  
And Zoro. Zoro was the worst of the lot, all brawn and no brain. The fucking marimo was only good for bleeding on things and making a doctor a necessity on the ship. For all his strength he died like the rest of them. And he annoyed Sanji like no one else ever did.  
  
He spared the girls, knowing even in his state that he would never forgive himself if he insulted them even in the privacy of his own head. He had not sunk so low yet but he didn't make any promises for the next day.  
  
He was almost shaking with fury and self-loathing when the door opened and Robin entered the kitchen and he made a conscious effort to calm himself. She stopped barely inside, staring at Sanji with a thoughtful expression.  
  
"Are you all right, Cook-san?" Robin asked after a long searching look.  
  
Sanji took a breath and clenched his jaw, turning back to the stove to finish composing himself. He poured a mug of steaming coffee and gave it to Robin with a small smile.  
  
"Yes Robin-chan, just tired," he said. The smile must have looked as forced and brittle as it felt on his face but Robin said nothing, she only nodded and took her usual seat.  
  
She didn't say anything else, just sat in silence sipping her coffee and watching Sanji with a slight frown on her pretty face.  
  
"Sanjiiiiiii, I'm starving!" Luffy's usual shout accompanied the crew's arrival for breakfast and Sanji had a moment of intense dislike for them, so happy and oblivious. He glared at his nakama with narrowed eyes for a second and then caught Robin's surprised look and turned to the plates, taking deep breaths to control his emotions.  
  
Fuck, he was totally losing it.  
  
His mood didn't take long to spread to the rest of them, breakfast quickly turning into a tense and silent affair, all eyes fixed on him. The only person acting normally was Luffy, cramming his mouth with as much food as he could and munching away happily.  
  
"What's wrong with you, shitty-cook?" Zoro's voice broke the uncomfortable silence, "You've been glaring at us all the time."  
  
Sanji turned to respond and saw Robin putting a hand on the marimo's arm and shake her head.  
  
"Cook-san is tired, Zoro," she said with a small smile, "He had watch before so he probably just needs to rest."  
  
Zoro looked like he wanted to say something else and Sanji silently dared him to. He was itching for a good fight; he had been since he woke up.  
  
Zoro stared at him a second longer and then turned to Robin with a little nod before leaving the kitchen. The rest of the crew took it as their signal to leave as well, only Robin remaining sitting in her place, eyes fixed on Sanji.  
  
"Cook-san," she said slowly as if talking to a dangerous and frightened animal, "is something bothering you? You seem tense."  
  
He really wanted to hit something, rage at the world and scream to be left the fuck alone, but this was Robin and he couldn't do something like that in her presence. Sanji sighed and leaned against the counter tiredly. "I might be coming down with something, Robin-chan," he lied not looking at her. He knew she wasn't going to buy it, but he also knew she wasn't going to press him for the truth.  
  
"You do look pale and tired," she said standing up and walking up to him, putting her hand against his forehead. Normally such an expression of concern from one of the girls would have turned him into a gooey mass of happy cook, today it didn't muster more than a thrill of grateful excitement. "Maybe you should have Chopper give you a check up and take a nap before lunch."  
  
Sanji smiled and this time it felt real, "If only I could," he said wistfully, "but there is no time."  
  
Robin looked at him puzzled for second and then blinked surprised when Franky's shout called everyone outside.  
  
"Time for the show to begin," Sanji muttered under his breath and followed her to the deck to face the storm.  
  
…  
  
Sanji retreated to the kitchen right after the storm to wait for Zoro; most of the calmness he got in the morning during his conversation with Robin was gone, leaving only the writhing fury within him and that awful feeling of loneliness.  
  
It was so strange to feel that way with all his nakama around.  
  
It was nobody's fault, really, and he knew this. He couldn't help what he felt, though. The fact that they didn't know what he knew and couldn't share the burden was eating at him, and knowing the moment to see them die again was approaching because he wasn't strong enough to stop it. It was driving him crazy.  
  
He heard the door open and close but there were no footsteps. Surprised Sanji turned around and found himself alone in the empty kitchen.  
  
"Is not a good time now, Swordsman-san," Robin's voice reached him from outside the door. "Cook-san is not feeling well and had no time to rest with the storm."  
  
"I don't care what the idiot cook needs," Zoro said loud enough Sanji didn't need to strain to hear it. He gritted his teeth and wished Robin wouldn't meddle in that, he wanted to kick the idiot's head in right then and there. "He's been snapping at everyone and glaring the entire day, he owes us an explanation."  
  
"If you go there now is not an explanation what you will get, it's a kick," Robin said and she sounded too amused for Sanji's peace of mind.  
  
"Fine with me," Zoro replied and Sanji saw the door moving an inch and then close again.  
  
"Chopper will be very upset if you damage your body more, Swordsman-san."  
  
Sanji rolled his eyes. It wouldn't make a difference soon enough but it seemed to be the thing to say because when the door opened it was Robin who entered, not Zoro.  
  
"Ah Cook-san," she said smiling and Sanji turned his back to her and began chopping things at random, looking for all the world as if he had not been eavesdropping. She didn't buy it. "I need to get a bottle of rum for Zoro."  
  
"In the rack," Sanji replied curtly, torn between annoyance at her intervention and amusement at how well she handled them. "Why isn't the marimo getting his own stuff, he shouldn't be making a lovely lady do his work."  
  
"Thank you. Is dinner going to be soon? Luffy is already trying to eat Chopper," she said not really answering his question. Not that it was needed; Sanji knew perfectly well why he wasn't there.  
  
"Pirates!" Usopp's shout prevented the conversation to continue and Robin gave Sanji a questioning look when he sighed tiredly.  
  
"Let's go," he said not looking at her, "it seems this day is not over yet."  
  
…  
  
Sanji didn't waste any time once they were outside, walking up to Nami and requesting the same thing again. Nami looked at him puzzled and asked if he was insane, but she did what she was told the moment the first unseen hit landed on her.  
  
The rest of the fight went much the same way it did the day before, Sanji fighting like a madman, trying to kick the cut everything on his path.  
  
At some point he collided against Zoro, cursing at him and feeling so tempted to aim the next kick at his head he wasn't able to dodge a hit to his side.  
  
"Fuck! Fucking Marimo, if you're not going to help at least don't hinder me!" he shouted, all sense of purpose and reality almost lost.  
  
Zoro shot him a glare but didn't say anything, his white sword clamped firmly between his teeth and blood dripping from a wound in his arm. He turned to cut down the attacking enemy, gritting his teeth against the hilt of his sword when it stood up again.  
  
"Fucking useless every single one of them," Sanji muttered under his breath, the pain on his side making him angrier.  
  
"What the fuck is your problem, Cook?" Zoro shouted while he dodged a blow and parried with one of his own.  
  
"Nothing, nothing is my problem marimo," Sanji said kicking the panther-woman in the middle and sending her sprawling. "Just fight and try not to die for once."  
  
If look could kill Sanji would have died on the spot, not that he needed any help for that considering how the fight was going.  
  
"Fucking stupid cook," Zoro said and was going to lunge at Sanji when he stopped cold, a gunshot ringing in the ship. The screams that followed only made it worse, Zoro's eyes widening and looking frantically around, trying to see something in the mist. "What?"  
  
"Fuck no!"  
  
All the anger drained from Sanji in an instant, despair replacing it as if it had never left. No. Not again.  
  
He wanted to close his eyes and make everything disappear.  
  
"Sanji what are you doing! Move!" Zoro shouted and gave him a push out of the way and the next Sanji saw was Zoro crumbling on the deck, bleeding profusely from a wide wound on his chest.  
  
"No, stop, stop it!" Sanji shouted, the mist lifting finally to allow him to see the carnage around him.  
  
Again he was the last one standing. Again he had failed.  
  
And again he closed his eyes and waited for her.  
  
…  
  
"I don't want to talk to you, let me die in peace," Sanji whispered when the woman appeared in front of him again.  
  
Today had been the worst of all, and the previous ones had been bad enough. It wasn't just seeing his friends die and not being able to stop them. The knowledge that it would happen again was eating at him, and in spite of her assurances that there was a way out, Sanji couldn't find it.  
  
The torture was unbearable. He had the chance to save everyone but he wasn't smart enough to figure it out. Maybe this was his punishment for some heinous deed in a previous life.  
  
_You've really given up._ she said and she sounded so damned disappointed Sanji felt something for the first time in the whole day.  
  
"Go away," he said angrily, his fury choking the words.  
  
_I can't. Not without you._  
  
"Is that what you want? Is that what I have to do?" Sanji shouted uncaring, for the first time in his life, that she was a woman or that she claimed to be helping them. This wasn't a normal woman anyway, no matter the shape she took. She was Death, more than that she had to be a devil to put him through all that.  
  
Maybe he was already in Hell and he had not realised yet.  
  
She wasn't answering but she was staring at him with a pointed look on her face and Sanji felt again like an idiot. She was trying to tell him something and he was too tired and too depressed to think clearly.  
  
He almost didn't care anymore.  
  
"You want me to die?" he asked acidly, all his frustration and anger coming out. "Fine, I'm dying. That's the reason you're here, isn't it?"  
  
She shook her head sadly, still not saying anything. It was the first time she had not given him any information and Sanji hated her at that moment more than anything else in his life.  
  
"Fine, have it your way!" He said closing his eyes and waiting for the end.  
  
It didn't take long.  
  
…


	7. Day 6

"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," Sanji whispered not looking up.  
  
Sanji didn't even bother to stand up from the bench, what was the point? It would get the same results if he stayed there all day long and waited for death. It was going to come anyway and nothing Sanji did was going to change that.  
  
"Oi Cook, what are you doing? Move it!" Zoro said, his stare so intense Sanji could feel it almost like a touch on the back of his neck.  
  
He sighed tiredly and stood up, ignoring Zoro completely and going straight to the Crow's Nest.  
  
He didn't have the energy to argue with the marimo, he didn't have the energy to do anything if truth be told. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep forever.  
  
Getting angry at the world for the unfairness of everything accomplished nothing and used up more energy than Sanji could spare at the time. He felt as if just breathing took an immense toll on him.  
  
And he still had two days more to endure.  
  
He sat down and closed his eyes not wanting to look out and see the bad omen reflected bloodily on the black waters. He already knew it meant death.  
  
He didn't know what to do anymore and was already past the point where it mattered. He didn't have time to think; now it was the time to act. But he had no bleeding clue of how.  
  
He never imagined a day would come where he'd give up on something important.  
  
But was else could he do? Everything he tried failed and the only thing he had accomplished in the past few days was to see his friends die again and again. He knew by heart now everyone's expressions when the light went out of their eyes. Usopp's surprised face, Nami's anguished one, Robin's desperate, Franky's pained and Zoro's horrified. He had been spared the other three but his mind was more than happy to supply it for him.  
  
Sanji knew if he ever got to sleep again he was going to see them in his nightmares forever.  
  
Not that he believed he could survive. He was convinced they weren't going to. And he was too fucking tired and heartsick to get angry with Death anymore: it wasn't her fault she had picked the wrong one to give this chance to.  
  
She should have chosen Zoro.  
  
The marimo, suicidal idiot that he was, had at least saved his nakama when push came to shove. It was more than could be said for Sanji.  
  
He felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up inside of him and forced himself to calm down. He really wasn't strong enough and his nakama were the ones paying the price. Talk about irony.  
  
He was envious of Zoro for doing what he couldn't; he must have lost it completely.  
  
He closed his eyes, feeling the sting of unshed tears, and took several deep breaths. Robin was about to arrive, it wouldn't do to have her see him in that state.  
  
The day had barely started and he was already like this.  
  
It was going to be a hell of a long day.  
  
…  
  
When the storm was finally over, the sea calm and placid as if nothing had ever happened there, Sanji let himself slide on to the deck and closed his eyes for a second, breathing deeply.  
  
He knew he had to go and start dinner but there was no point in it, was there? He was never going to finish it. There was no hurry, he could take a breather out here with his crew mates before going to the kitchen, or he could just put off going inside for one day.  
  
No one was going to know the difference.  
  
The sound of his nakama's voices filled the silence left in the wake of the wind and rain after a few minutes, all of them cheerful and so very alive it broke Sanji's heart to know the laughs would turn into screams soon enough. Yeah, he would just stay there and soak in their happiness-filled voices while he could.  
  
"What's wrong Zoro?" Luffy's voice called Sanji attention back to the present and he opened one eye lazily.  
  
Zoro was standing in front of him, staring at Sanji with an alien expression on his face.  
  
_Oh right,_ Sanji thought idly, _of course, the one to notice had to be the _marimo_._  
  
"Got a problem, Marimo?" Sanji asked, not moving from his spot on the deck.  
  
Zoro stared at him intently, his brow creased by a thin line and his lips pressed tightly together. He tilted his head to the side, still studying Sanji, and then looked at the galley. His gesture seemed to say Sanji should be somewhere else but there were no words coming from his mouth.  
  
"Sanji I'm starving!" Luffy said from somewhere behind Zoro, his voice full of eagerness and not a little pleading. "Are you going to make dinner?"  
  
Sanji resisted the urge to sigh loudly and pushed himself up, dusting off his suit and stretching his tired body. "Right now, Luffy," he said looking at his Captain and returning the brilliant smile flashed at him with a pale imitation of his own.  
  
He hoped Luffy wouldn't notice.  
  
"I want meat!"  
  
"You always do," Sanji said turning around with a last look at the still unmoving marimo and heading to the kitchen.  
  
Zoro entered right after him and took what Sanji privately thought as his usual seat at the table, staring silently at him with the closed bottle of rum next to his hand. Sanji ignored him while he took out the vegetables and the meat. Under normal circumstances he would never use food he knew was not going to be consumed, but this was far from normal.  
  
And besides, nobody could expect him to stay calm and composed with Zoro staring at him in that way. He needed to do something with his hands.  
  
After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence Sanji turned to look at him, "Look Marimo, whatever it is you want to talk about I don't care," he said in a low voice, barely audible in the silent kitchen. "Take your booze and get out."  
  
"Something bothering you, Cook?" Zoro said, persistent as only the little bugger could be.  
  
Sanji sighed tiredly. "No, nothing is fucking bothering me but you right now," he said shaking his head, "I'm exhausted and the day is not over yet, I don't want to have the same stupid conversation again and again," he turned his back to Zoro and waited for him to leave so he could just rest for a few minutes before the last part of the show started.  
  
Zoro didn't move. "No, you have been staring at me since I woke up two days ago," Zoro insisted. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"  
  
Sanji rolled his eyes this time. Fucking stubborn Marimo.  
  
"Can we not do this now?" he muttered under his breath. "Look Zoro, just leave me alone for a second, ok? We'll repeat this tomorrow so I don't see the point right now."  
  
Zoro stared at him as if he had lost his mind, which thinking about it was not so far off the mark. He certainly felt as if he had.  
  
"You're acting weird, Cook."  
  
"Yes, I know. Now fuck off from here," he said finally raising his voice, his patience with Zoro running out.  
  
Zoro glared at him and stubbornly refused to move.  
  
"Oh, for fuck's sake! Do you want to have the conversation about Kuma now? You win, we'll have it," Sanji dropped his knives on the counter and walked up to the marimo. "Do you want me to tell you what a stupid, completely retarded, suicidal bastard you are? Because I thought you were one before. But not now, now I understand you and I'd do the same if given the chance!"  
  
Zoro smirked, "You tried."  
  
"I know." He closed his eyes wondering why he even bothered. Of course, he had tried, but unlike Zoro, he failed. He kept failing. Was there a point to keep trying if he was not to succeed? "Just go Zoro, I'm tired of this endless conversation."  
  
"What are you--?"  
  
"Pirates!"  
  
Sanji opened his eyes again and he must have looked pretty bad at the moment because Zoro's smirk vanished, replaced by something like concern.  
  
"Time's up," he said, and he forced his body to move outside, each step feeling like something was being torn inside of him.  
  
He really didn't want to go, but what else could he do?  
  
…  
  
Sanji watched the fight proceed with disinterest, feeling oddly detached from the events taking place around him. He didn't even care about the damage done to his body, nor had he asked Nami to help with the fog.  
  
It wouldn't make any difference. It hadn't before.  
  
Zoro thudded against the railing next to Sanji, the wind knocked out of him from a blow. He turned to look at Sanji with the most incredulous expression he had even seen, "What the fuck are you doing Cook?" he shouted, parrying and invisible blow with his sword.  
  
Sanji looked at him and shrugged, lighting a cigarette and taking a long draw, choking on the smoke when something hit him in the stomach.  
  
"Nothing," he said when he got his breath back, "it won't change the outcome, so I'm not going to even bother."  
  
The next hit he saw but didn't bother to dodge either, Zoro's punch almost enough to make him topple overboard.  
  
"Fucking shitty cook, what's your problem?" Zoro shouted in his face, the anger and worry coming from him almost tangible. He grabbed Sanji's lapels and bodily moved him away from the railing a second before a bullet hit the wood where he had been.  
  
Sanji let himself be manhandled that way, not fighting against Zoro for the first time in his life. The last one too at the rate things were moving.  
  
That thought alone was enough to make him bark a laugh, the sound so brittle it made his own flesh crawl.  
  
He was officially insane.  
  
Around them the sounds of the fight were raising in pitch, the screams turning more desperate by the second. A gunshot tore the air at Sanji's back and he sighed.  
  
"There goes Usopp," he said under his breath and Zoro looked at him with horror, his eyes darting between Sanji's face and the place where Usopp had fallen.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're next," Sanji said eyes shining with madness. Zoro visibly flinched and tried to move away from him.  
  
Sanji's hands moved of their own accord, fisting on Zoro's shirt and keeping him close. He didn't know what strange impulse made him do that, and had no idea of what he was going to do next until he leaned forward and pressed his mouth against Zoro's.  
  
It was brief and clumsy, and could hardly be considered a kiss. Zoro's lips tasted of blood and his expression was one Sanji had never seen. Maybe he was also a little insane.  
  
Sanji laughed again.  
  
"Goodbye Zoro," he said releasing him. Zoro fell on top on Sanji first, his eyes closing as he slid down, finally resting on the deck.  
  
Sanji took a step back and turned to lean against the railing again, facing the ship. He looked around and saw he was, like every other time, the last one standing.  
  
And now it was his turn to die.  
  
Just one more day and he would never have to see this again.  
  
He felt the pain of the shot at the same time he heard it, his eyes closing of their own accord. He forced them open again, wanting to see the moment when Death would come for him.  
  
He wanted to tell her she had won; she could take him whenever she wanted. The sooner the better.  
  
One more day of this was one day too many.  
  
She appeared, her form materializing on the deck and Sanji saw surprised how the hooded figured vanished at the same time. As if they couldn't share the same space. He listened to see if he could catch the sound of the other things and noticed that he was indeed alone with her.  
  
Oh shit.  
  
He was really an idiot!  
  
A humourless laugh bubbled up inside him and Sanji pressed his lips together to keep it locked. He knew that if he let it out he might not come back from that dark and empty place he had spent the day in.  
  
It was time to come back to his senses.  
  
He'd finally figured it out.  
  
…  
  
"_You_ are the way to stop them, are you not?" Sanji asked looking at the woman, finally understanding. It was easy to see once you knew where to look for the clues but it had taken him all that time to notice.  
  
_Yes_, she smiled turning into the beautiful young girl again.  
  
"What are those hooded things?"  
  
_Nothing but shadows. Petty tricks to distract you so you won't see the real enemy. The one leading them, he's is the dangerous one._  
  
Sanji took a cigarette from his pocket with his good hand, put it in his mouth and lit it enjoying the nicotine and the knowledge that he was going to win. He finally knew how.  
  
"I've never seen anything but them."  
  
_I know. He doesn't show himself, not if he can help it. But he's there, in the Black Ship, collecting souls that don't belong to him._  
  
Sanji smiled. "But not mine."  
  
_Yours is mine, I marked you the first night._  
  
Sanji nodded taking a drag of his cigarette. "Why?"  
  
The girl approached him, crouching in front of his body and extending her hand to touch his face. It went through it but Sanji could swear he felt a hint of warmness. _Once he was one of ours--my brother--but he wasn't satisfied with the lives he took and soon started hungering for more. He had to be punished, but we only managed to seal him within the Triangle under the curse of the red moon, limit the souls he has access to and hope we can help those he gets his hands to._  
  
"I see."  
  
_You're not angry or scared,_ she said softly, smiling.  
  
Sanji laughed, a sound so alien after the desperation of the last days he thought it might come from someone else. "You're giving me the chance to save my nakama."  
  
_At a price._  
  
Sanji looked around at the bleak scene, the corpses and empty spaces left around the Sunny. He looked at Zoro's body and was grateful the marimo wouldn't remember what he had done.  
  
Everything was going to be fine and they'd never need to know the cost.  
  
"Cheap."  
  
She smiled and Sanji closed his eyes.  
  
Somehow he couldn't wait for morning to come.  
  
…


	8. Day 7

"Oi Cook, you fell asleep in the galley again and it's your watch now," Zoro said his voice a gruff whisper. He looked half asleep and Sanji stifled a yawn.  
  
"Go to sleep you dumbass, I'm awake," Sanji said jumping up from the bench and rushing outside, the cold air of the early morning helping him feel a bit more refreshed.  
  
It was the last chance and this time he couldn't afford to lose even one of his friends. He knew what he had to do.  
  
Humming happily to himself he climbed up to the Crow's Nest, staring out of the window at the red moon reflected in the waters. Red had never been a favourite of his, and after this, it was sure to have a position at the bottom of the list, but somehow today he didn't care much.  
  
Today the moon looked less like blood and more like rubies.  
  
Nami would have loved it.  
  
Nami--there was a thought to warm Sanji's heart. His pretty Nami-swan with the beautiful eyes and shapely body. She was so lovely he wouldn't mind dying for her.  
  
He intended to do it. Tonight.  
  
And for Robin. Robin-chwan with the soft voice and the knowing eyes. Always the lady: calm and composed and so very beautiful. Someone to die for if Sanji had ever known one.  
  
Sanji smiled thinking about them, his pretty lovely ladies.  
  
But they weren't the only ones, and Sanji wouldn't mind giving his life for any of his nakama.  
  
Luffy, the boy who had promised to take him to his dream. The first person ever not to question the reality of it--if it was real enough for Sanji, it was real enough for Luffy and that was all that mattered.  
  
Sanji would follow his Captain to the end of the world if needed.  
  
And Usopp, the Great Captain Usopp. He really didn't know how brave he really was, always hiding behind his epic stories and his cheap masks. Sanji was certain Usopp would be a brave warrior one day. It was a pity he wouldn't be there to see it, but it was enough knowing he played a part on it.  
  
Chopper was still a child. A child in the body of a monster but a child nonetheless. And he was always trying to keep up with them, which couldn't be easy considering who they were. It was incredible he managed to keep an innocent heart after all he'd seen and Sanji wanted him to keep it forever.  
  
He'd give anything to make sure of that.  
  
Franky was still a perverted bastard, not two ways around that one. But just one look around the Sunny was enough to tell anyone with eyes he wasn't just your average perverted bastard. And Sanji had to admit he did wonders for the mood on the ship, he was as insane as the rest of the Straw Hats and had a dream as big as theirs. He needed to achieve it.  
  
Brook was special even by their standards, but Sanji could see his determination to keep a promise to a friend, even after death. He'd make sure Brook kept it.  
  
And Zoro--the fucking idiot marimo who'd offered his life in exchange for the crew's. He was probably the only one who'd understand Sanji and what he was about to do. He even forfeited his dream if that would spare his nakama's lives. They were so alike it was unbelievable.  
  
Sanji's heart clenched at the thought of the marimo, his mind going back to what he had done last night.  
  
He really was a moron, wasn't he?  
  
He had been obsessed with the marimo since the first time he set foot on the Merry, spending as much time annoying him and getting into fights as he did fawning over the girls. And he had been so worried after what happened with Kuma--worried and angry at Zoro for pulling that shit on them and _almost_ dying.  
  
In hindsight, one didn't need to be a genius to figure that one out.  
  
Well, he had needed insanity and several rounds against Death itself to see what was in front of his eyes, he certainly hoped Zoro wasn't about to figure it out as well now Sanji wouldn't be around anymore.  
  
It was funny how different were his thoughts about his friends now he had a little hope. Sanji felt slightly ashamed of himself for his previous behaviour, but luckily no one was going to remember.  
  
He was feeling pretty energetic for someone who hadn't slept since forever by the time Robin arrived to change shift, and he greeted her with a wide smile.  
  
"Robin-chwan, you look so lovely this morning!"  
  
And she did, still half asleep and a bit rumpled she was a sight for Sanji's eyes. She returned his smile sleepily. "Good day Cook-san, you look like you are in a good mood today."  
  
"I am. I finally found the answer to a question which was driving me insane."  
  
Quite literally, though he wasn't going to say that.  
  
"Oh, that's good," she said leaning against the window and staring out at the ocean.  
  
"I have to prepare breakfast, Robin-chwan. Do you want something special for today?" he asked though he knew what she was going to say.  
  
"Thank you, Cook-san but the usual is already special enough."  
  
He nodded and went down to the kitchen. He was going to make a breakfast to remember.  
  
It was his last one after all.  
  
…  
  
"Wow Sanji, you outdid yourself today!" Luffy was staring at the lavish spread on the table with wide-eyed wonder, droll already falling down the side of his mouth.  
  
Everyone else seemed to agree with that if the stunned expressions on their faces were anything to go by. Sanji felt a swell of pride and affection in his chest.  
  
"What's the occasion, Cook?" Zoro was the only member of the crew who didn't share their wonder. He was regarding the food with suspicion, his eyes darting from the table to Sanji.  
  
"I just wanted to try something new," Sanji lied, "any problem with that, Marimo?"  
  
"You can try new things anytime, Sanji!" Luffy said enthusiastically around a mouthful of meat and rice, spraying grains wildly on the table. Sanji kicked him for speaking with his mouth full like he always did, and the rest of the crew took it as their cue to start eating as well.  
  
Sanji observed them, committing every little detail to memory: Luffy's ravenous hunger and simple mind, Usopp's nonstop chatter about some lie or another, Brook's annoying skeleton jokes, Robin's indulgent smile and Nami's mischievous one, Chopper's starry eyed expression and even Zoro's suspicious looks. Those were his nakama and he wanted to remember them just like that, erase those other memories--blood and death and pain--from his mind.  
  
"I'm going to take some of this to Franky," he said gathering some food on a plate before Luffy finished it all.  
  
He climbed up to the Crow's Nest where Franky was staring out of the window at the calm sea. Sanji hadn't really looked at the Triangle during the day, too busy cooking and with everything else happening, but he had to admit it looked beautiful when the waters were calm.  
  
"Oh, thanks, Sanji-bro," Franky said accepting the bottle of cola Sanji offered him.  
  
He had tried to break him of that nasty habit without much success.  
  
"It's calm out there," Franky said finishing the first bottle in one gulp and reaching for the second one. Sanji lit a cigarette and leaned against the wall, his eyes fixed on the blue waters.  
  
"Yes, it is very calm."  
  
"I hope we pick some good wind to take us to Merman Island soon," Franky said putting the second bottle down and starting on the food. "This is really good bro!"  
  
Sanji smiled, "I know."  
  
They stayed in comfortable silence for a few more minutes, the only sounds in the Crow's Nest those of Franky's enjoyment of his breakfast. When he had finished the storm clouds could already be seen approaching.  
  
"Fuck it; I guess this is the Triangle. We'll have a storm on us in a couple of minutes," Franky said looking outside with narrowed eyes. "All hands on deck!" he shouted.  
  
And they were off.  
  
…  
  
For the first time in his life, Sanji's hand shook while he was preparing dinner. As the hour approached Sanji's calm wore off, his nerves tingling with fear and excitement, his body inundated by an energy which should have been all but spent.  
  
He didn't even know why he was in the kitchen, pretending everything was normal and starting dinner preparations he wasn't going to finish, but he needed something to keep his hands occupied while he waited for what was to come.  
  
And for Zoro, let's not forget waiting for Zoro. The Marimo was about to enter the kitchen and re-enact their usual scene. Sanji had been looking forward to it all day with a perverse sort of pleasure. He was going to die tonight, he had nothing to lose. Tonight's scene was going to be a bit different; Sanji, for one, intended to tell Zoro everything he had ever wanted to tell the stupid seaweed head.  
  
It was funny how liberating was knowing there would be no consequences, he could curse and kick the bastard and he wouldn't have to answer any of his questions, he didn't need to have a reason. He could even kiss him, safe in the knowledge that however unrequited his affections might be there would be no rejection, no heartbreak.  
  
At least none that lasted for him. It might be different for Zoro and that was the reason he wasn't going to.  
  
Sanji had considered telling the rest of the crew what was going to happen, get their help defeating the enemies but if they knew what he had to do they would never do it willingly. He had to play with his cards close to his chest, but if that was the way to save them then he would.  
  
Even if they hated him for that.  
  
He heard Zoro enter the kitchen and grab the bottle, like every other day, and turned to look at him. Zoro's expression was different than before, he was studying him carefully, nothing new there, but the pinkish tinge on his face when their eyes met made Sanji wonder whether he had any recollection of the previous day's events.  
  
He sure hoped not.  
  
Zoro shook his head as if dislodging a thought. "Something bothering you, Cook?"

  
"Yes," Sanji said and couldn't help the smirk on his face at Zoro's surprised look. "I want to talk to you about your stupid death wish."  
  
"Is that what had you so pumped up today? Waiting for a chance to tell me off?" Zoro said his mouth twitching up in a smirk of his own.  
  
Sanji laughed, he hadn't felt this good in a long time, the despair he had been feeling allowing him to miss the pleasure it was just being with his nakama. And arguing with the marimo was one of his favourite things. He was sure he was going to miss it.  
  
"Tell you off? No, that would be hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?" he said taking the bottle from the table and opening it. He took a long swig, feeling the burn of the alcohol going down his throat and made a face. Nasty stuff.  
  
"Then what?" Zoro looked puzzled, it was clear the conversation wasn't going in the direction he was expecting.  
  
"Did you stop to think how we would feel if you gave your life for us?" Sanji said going to the wine rack and selecting the best bottle in it. No sense in having the good stuff wasted after he was gone, knowing his nakama they'd probably empty the bottle on the sea the next day.  
  
He'd enjoy it better now.  
  
"No, I didn't," Zoro admitted. "I just thought any way you felt would be good since you'd be alive too."  
  
Sanji nodded, that was the answer he was expecting and he hoped Zoro would remember it later on.  
  
"You didn't think about how Luffy would feel, about how I felt," he continued. "But I know why you did it, and I don't want a repeat."  
  
"What do you mean?" Zoro was staring at him intently, his confusion clear.  
  
"Something is going to happen tonight," he finally said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I can't tell you more, but you have to trust me."  
  
"Are you already drunk, Cook?"  
  
"No! Shut up and listen! Something is going to happen and you will not interfere."  
  
Zoro shook his head stubbornly. "I don't understand a word you're saying."  
  
Sanji sighed feeling his nerves fraying, talking to Zoro usually had that effect on him, no matter how much he tried to stay calm. "You don't need to understand. You just need to trust me and do what I tell you if you want everyone to survive."  
  
"How do you know?" Zoro insisted.  
  
"I just do, don't ask." The only way to do it was to keep them in the dark for as long as possible. "Do you trust me?" he repeated, looking Zoro seriously in the eye.  
  
Zoro narrowed his eyes, studying him, considering. "What is this about, Cook?"  
  
"Fuck, don't ask idiot! Just decide if you trust me or not, we don't have time to discuss it now!" Sanji looked out of the window, the ship would be on sight any minute now and Usopp would shout.  
  
"Tell me what is this about you bastard, you've been acting weird even for you, you think I wouldn't notice? Special breakfast and smiles all day long, even during that storm. Something is wrong with you," Zoro insisted stubbornly.  
  
That fucking stubborn seaweed head, Sanji wanted to kick some sense into him. "Trust me you fucker," he said, almost pleading. "Soon, any minute now, a ship is going to attack us. Do what I tell you and we might have a chance," he said hurriedly, desperately. He needed Zoro to believe him but had no time to convince him he wasn't insane. Or maybe he was, he didn't care anymore, he just knew he had to save them.  
  
"What have you been drinking Cook? What are you--"  
  
"Shut it Zoro!" Sanji finally snapped, his eyes darting to the window again. He had no time to explain. "I've been going through this enough to know what we have to do, just fucking trust me for once in your fucking life without wasting our time with idiotic questions!"  
  
Zoro was going to protest, Sanji knew it.  
  
"Pirates!" Usopp's voice reached them and Zoro's eyes widened, looking out and turning to Sanji again, a thousand questions in his gaze.  
  
"What?"  
  
"No time," Sanji said, hurrying to the door. "Just do what I tell you, I'll explain everything to you later." Or not, Sanji thought, hoping they would forgive him for not being there when everything ended.  
  
"Fine, but this better be good," Zoro said following him outside.  
  
The ship was in view now and Sanji felt a thrill of fear and excitement rushing through his veins. This time he was going to succeed, no matter what, he was going to.  
  
"When I give you the signal you have to push Usopp overboard," he said, eyes fixed on the Black Ship so he missed Zoro's reaction.  
  
There was no way he would have missed the shout of outrage right in his ear, though. "The fuck! Are you completely raving mad, Cook?"  
  
Sanji turned to look at him, his eyes shining with insanity and bloodlust. He saw Zoro flinch but didn't care. "Look, just fucking do it ok, you'll understand when the time comes. Stick to Usopp and when I give you the signal toss him overboard, it's the only way--" Sanji looked around and saw everything was in place already. He had wasted precious seconds talking to Zoro. "Fuck!"  
  
"Ew, that has to be the most disgusting Jolly Roger I've seen," Nami was saying and Sanji didn't wait for more, he rushed to her side.  
  
"Nami," he said, "listen to me, you have to use the clima tact to create a fog in the Sunny," he said, noticing Zoro had followed him and was listening to his conversation with interest. He saw Zoro raising an eyebrow and realized he had called Nami without the honorific, but he had no time to spare even for courtesy.  
  
Nami looked at him, her brows rushing together in a frown, "But we won't be able to see the enemy if we do that," she said.  
  
"No, that's the only way we will be able to see them. Trust me."  
  
Sanji realized he had been asking his nakama to trust him without giving them an explanation but there was nothing he could do about it.  
  
"Are you sure about that, Cook-san?" Robin said from Nami's side.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Robin nodded and Nami looked first at her and then at Sanji. "Fine, I'll do it but you owe me an explanation."  
  
"Yes, yes, I know," he said impatiently, "Franky! Stay close to the girls, don't go off on your own or I'll kick your arse from here to Merman Island, got it?"  
  
"What's with you, bro?" Franky asked frowning.  
  
"No time to explain!" The hooded figures would be appearing any second now.  
  
"Listen to Cook-san, Franky," Robin said and Franky nodded a tad reluctantly.  
  
"Fine."  
  
Sanji sighed relieved; everything was going to be fine.  
  
…  
  
The fog wasn't only so they could see the enemy, at least not this time. The fact that the crew wasn't able to see each other in the middle of the whiteness worked to Sanji's advantage, he had the positions of everyone memorized and their movements imprinted in his mind. The only two variables were Zoro and Franky, but he had already taken care of that.  
  
The important part was that _they_ wouldn't be able to see _him_.  
  
He knew he had to let them fight, there was no way they wouldn't, and he also had to fight and try to stay alive until the timing was right. Usopp was the key; he was always the first one to fall so Sanji had to make sure he wouldn't.  
  
He was getting better at avoiding those damned Zoans; the trick was keeping ahead of them now he could see them and dodge their hits.  
  
He kept all his senses trained on the fight while he moved out of the way, avoiding as much damage as he could and slowly circling the position where he knew the girls were, Usopp and Zoro close by.  
  
He could hear screams of rage and terror and a faint sobbing close by. It was almost time.  
  
"Robin, Nami don't worry," Sanji heard his Captain say. "I'll defeat these guys, whoever they are."  
  
The faint _clunk_ of metal hitting the railing told him Luffy was trying to stand in his weakened state. He remembered what came next and got out of the way just in time to avoid his hand being crushed. Those fuckers weren't only persistent, they were also repetitive.  
  
He'd have to thank them for that.  
  
"Zoro, now!" he shouted and the next he heard was the loud splash of several bodies hitting the water and a gunshot. No screams came but he could swear Usopp's voice was still cursing from the unseen waters.  
  
"What the fuck?" Zoro's surprised voice reached him from Usopp's place next to the railing. He must have noticed the gunshot.  
  
"The girls, marimo! Do the same!" he shouted and turned to where he guessed Franky would be on the other side of them.  
  
He was so focused on getting there he couldn't dodge a blow to his side, pain exploding in his waist and ribs and making his vision swim for a second. Fuck!  
  
He doggedly continued moving forward, seeing Franky's form in front of him.  
  
"Sorry Franky," he said before aiming a kick at his chest.  
  
Franky barely had the time to look at him surprised before he was falling overboard, a loud curse falling from his mouth. Sanji smiled, only one more.  
  
Without pausing, Sanji turned to where Zoro was, hoping to catch him unawares as well but knowing it was going to be more difficult. He was right. The first kick was parried with a sword, Zoro glaring daggers at him.  
  
"What is this all about?" he asked slashing one of the things coming at him from the side, his eyes never leaving Sanji.  
  
Sanji didn't say anything. There was nothing to say, he ducked low when the next hit came his way and observed Zoro, timing his next attack carefully. Now there were only the two of them and all the enemies on the ship, and Zoro was already bleeding again.  
  
His chance came pretty quickly, the Zoans attacking in twos now they had the advantage of numbers. Zoro moved his eyes away from Sanji for an instant to counter a blow and that was all he needed.  
  
He felt his kick connect and could see Zoro's disgruntled expression and he fell over the railing, his hands trying to find purchase on the wet wood but hindered by his own swords.  
  
"Fucking bastard!" Zoro shouted and Sanji turned away from the railing and walked to the other side.  
  
He had won.  
  
There was a howl of rage, the first sound he had ever heard the enemy making, and then the shot which told him his victory was complete.  
  
…  
  
Sanji saw the woman appear and smiled, trying to lift his hand to light a cigarette but unable to muster the strength for it.  
  
"I guess this is it," he said, his voice weak and barely audible. "I won."  
  
_You did._  
  
He could hear faintly in the distance the sound of heavy boots hitting the deck and guessed his kick had not thrown the marimo as far as he had hoped.  
  
He didn't want to see his face right now, not when he was about to leave. He had a moment to be grateful for the mist still covering the ship.  
  
"So I was right, they couldn't be in the same place you were," he said and the woman nodded.  
  
_Death spared them once, but it wasn't me so they flee when I arrive, just in case I take them,_ she said and something in her voice told Sanji it might not be the complete truth but he didn't care.  
  
"Oi Cook!" Zoro's voice reached him and Sanji tried to turn his head to look that way. "Sanji! Answer me!"  
  
"Shall we go now? I'd rather not have to say goodbye to them," he said to the woman and she leaned forward, her hand reaching out to him.  
  
_Yes, we'll leave in a minute._  
  
"Sanji! Answer me you bastard!" It sounded closer and far, far away at the same time, and Sanji closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, his body feeling numb and cold already.  
  
It was time.  
  
"Thank you," he muttered letting the darkness take him under.  
  
_Thank you._  
  
…


	9. Epilogue - Day 8

The first thing Sanji saw when he opened his eyes was Zoro's face scowling down at him.  
  
He closed his eyes again, tired. This wasn't supposed to be happening, he couldn't be there. Last night had been the seventh, the last attempt, and he had saved them. He had gone with the old lady willingly, safe in the knowledge he had won and his nakama would live. They might not forgive him for dying, but they would be alive.  
  
But this--this was too much. Was he supposed to keep living the same day, the same awful, terrible day again and again? Was that was Hell was about? He didn't know for how long he was going to be able to stand it before he broke again if that was the case.  
  
Seven days of seeing his friends dying had almost cost him his sanity.  
  
"Oi Cook," Zoro said in a gruff whisper and Sanji steeled himself to hear the rest of what he knew was coming, "I know you're awake so open your fucking eyes and look at me."  
  
Sanji's eyes snapped open. That was different.  
  
Zoro also looked different, he was bruised and more bandaged than the day before, and his expression was nothing short of murderous. Sanji opened his mouth to say something and found he couldn't speak, his throat was dry and the words refused to form in his dumbfounded brain.  
  
Zoro filled the silence for both of them, his voice too loud in the quiet night, "What the fuck did you think you were doing, idiot?" Zoro yelled, specks of spit flying from his mouth and landing on Sanji's face, who was too stunned to even wipe them with the disgust it deserved. "What was going through that shitty brain of yours to do that? You think you can walk out on us like that?"  
  
Sanji didn't answer, he couldn't. All he could do was stare at Zoro, whose face was getting redder by the minute and his voice louder, and wonder why he wasn't dead. He should be, by all accounts, he should be dead.  
  
"But--" he managed, his voice a choked whisper. Sanji cleared his throat and tried again. "But I--she--I--"  
  
Zoro's eyes narrowed, "_She_!" he spat venomously, "that witch."  
  
Sanji blinked in surprise, "What?" Zoro couldn't know about the woman, about Death. Only Sanji had seen her, only he had known about her. "Why am I not dead?" he finally asked.  
  
Zoro glared at him, "Do you want to die so badly?"  
  
"No, but she said--"  
  
"It doesn't matter what she said," Zoro said averting his eyes for the first time.  
  
Sanji looked at him sharply, "What did you do, bastard?" he asked suspiciously.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
_Zoro hauled himself over the railing, glad he had the presence of mind to grab it when the bastard cook kicked him over it. He was going to give the idiot a piece of his mind for pulling that shit on him. He took a second to catch his breath, eyes scanning the fine mist still covering the Sunny. Nothing moved in it._  
  
_"Oi Cook!" he shouted looking wildly around. He had a bad feeling; the deck was unnaturally quiet considering the fight that had been going on when he had been kicked overboard. "Sanji! Answer me!"_  
  
_If he was honest with himself he had been having a weird feeling the entire day, some scenes playing in front of him like déjà vu. And then, that strange conversation with the cook-- I've been going through this enough to know what we have to do,--what he was thinking was insane but he had learned to trust his instincts, which was the reason he agreed to do what Sanji asked of him._  
  
_He had not expected to be the next one supposed to take a swim, though._  
  
_"Sanji! Answer me you bastard!" He was beyond worried now, and the fucking mist didn't dissipate._  
  
_He saw her then: an old woman leaning over something--someone. She was almost translucent and her hand passed through the figure on the deck. Zoro took a step closer and saw a shock of blonde hair matted with blood, a pool of blood still forming under the body and spreading over the deck._  
  
No!  
  
_He rushed to their side, his white katana already unsheathed and ready to cut the old woman if needed._  
  
_"Keep your hands off him," he said, his voice an unsteady growl._  
  
I can't.  
  
_"You can and you will," Zoro said warningly taking another step closer._  
  
_She turned to look at him then, her eyes bottomless pits of sorrow and knowledge. Zoro shuddered._  
  
He agreed, are you going to make his sacrifice futile? Are you going to mock his pain and effort?  
  
_Zoro stared at her, speechless. Sanji couldn't, he just couldn't have. Zoro remembered their conversation and narrowed his eyes. Of course, he had the hypocritical bastard._  
  
_"I won't let you," Zoro insisted stubbornly refusing to let Sanji go and wondering if that was the way the idiot had felt when they woke up in Thriller Bark. If he had it was no wonder he was pissed off, right now Zoro felt like killing him._  
  
_Only Sanji was already dead._  
  
What can you do? He made his choice and he was happy with it.  
  
_"Why him?" Zoro heard himself asking, defeated, his sword clattering uselessly on the deck._  
  
He was strong and selfless, it couldn't have been anyone else.  
  
_Zoro nodded. He didn't know what he was going to tell Luffy and the rest of the crew--he didn't know what he could tell himself to make it easier to breathe._  
  
I've never encountered a group like yours, you are all so eager to die for each other.  
  
_"It won't make a difference if I say to take me instead, will it?" Zoro asked looking at her and saw how her smile made her look so much younger, almost like a little girl._  
  
I don't think that would make him happy, have you considered that?"  
  
_Zoro snorted a bitter laugh. "At least he'd be alive to be pissed off." Which was probably the same reasoning Sanji had when he decided to get everyone away from the ship and die alone. "How long?" He asked remembering Sanji's words and wondering for how long he had endured._  
  
Seven days, one for each piece of his soul, one for each one of his living friends._ Zoro saw a glint in the girl's eyes. She was telling him that for a reason, she was still there talking to him for a reason._  
  
_He needed to think._  
  
_There was a noise behind him signalling the arrival of everyone else. Some outraged cries and curses and the wet stomping of feet on the wooden deck._  
  
_"Damn Sanji, kicking me so hard!" Franky's voice shouted, chorused by everyone else's agreement in varied and colourful words. Zoro's heart clenched._  
  
_"Zoro! Sanji! Where are you?" Luffy shouted and he was about to say something when a shocked scream pierced the air, the mist finally disappearing._  
  
_"Sanji!" Nami rushed to his side and knelt next to the body, completely oblivious of the shimmering presence of the girl next to her. "Sanji! Wake up Sanji!"_  
  
_Everyone gathered around the fallen cook, eyes wide and disbelieving. Neither of them paid any attention to the girl except for Brook. _Brook_ looked at Sanji and then his hollow eyes turned to look at the girl and Zoro could see all the pain and sadness in his empty expression._  
  
I didn't think I'd see you again. You're looking good, your hair looks exactly the same.  
  
_Brook nodded, for one not making any tasteless joke. "Are you taking him?" _Chopper_ was crying, wringing his hands uselessly and shaking his head. _Next_ to him, Usopp was bawling like a baby._  
  
I think so._ Robin was now staring at Sanji silently, her pretty eyes filled with tears and her chest heaving in silent sobs._  
  
_"Is there something I can do?" Brook said slowly, looking intently at the girl. "Have you already taken him?"_  
  
Not you.  
  
_Zoro snapped out of it at that, blocking the sound of grief around him and focusing entirely on the girl. "You said seven days, seven parts," Zoro said slowly, an idea taking shape in his brain. "And you said he can't do anything. What about me? What about us?"_  
  
_The girl smiled proudly as if Zoro was a small kid who got the right answer in class._  
  
_"Can you see her, Zoro?" Brook asked distantly but Zoro paid him no attention, his senses centred only on the girl._  
  
_"Seven days, seven parts--and he can't do anything. You didn't say there is nothing that can be done, just that he can't. I can, can't I? We can."_  
  
I've never seen people like you, people who share not just a friendship. You share your souls.  
  
_And Zoro knew._  
  
_"You're taking him in exchange for our souls; can't you take part of us in exchange of his?"_  
  
Giving part of your life for a friend is not easily done, you know you might not live enough to accomplish your dreams that way.  
  
_"Who cares?"_  
  
_Her smile this time was the most beautiful Zoro had ever seen, almost blinding in its radiance and he wondered if she was really Death and not some kind of angel._  
  
_"Zoro?" Brooke was calling but he still ignored him._  
  
_"You can do that, can't you?" he asked, almost pleadingly._  
  
He's not going to be happy._ Zoro nodded, of _course_ Sanji wasn't going to be happy to be rescued again, but Zoro didn't give a shit about that. He'd rather deal with a pissed off cook than the grief quickly filling everyone on the ship. _They have to agree, it's their lives as well.  
  
_Zoro stood up and looked at his _nakama_._  
  
_"Sanji is not answering, Zoro," Luffy said, the sorrow in those simple words enough to break his heart._  
  
_"I know. But we can make it better."_  
  
_"Zoro, he's dead," Chopper said his voice choked with emotion._  
  
_"Yeah." He stared at them, their pain and tears, and knew it was going to be all right. "If you could, would you give anything to have him back?"_  
  
_They looked at him uncomprehendingly for an instant, the seriousness of his words opposed to their deep sorrow, and their tears stopped. Luffy was the first one to answer, his simple mind probably understanding what was going on before the rest of them._  
  
_"Anything."_  
  
_"Even part of your life? You might not live to be Pirate King if you do it."_  
  
_"Yes," Luffy had that focused look on him now, studying Zoro intently. "Being Pirate King is not good if my _nakama_ are not with me."_  
  
_"Anything," the rest of the crew echoed._  
  
_Zoro nodded and turned to the girl. "There you have it. Do it now."_  
  
"What did you do?" Sanji repeated his voice a low growl. There was something shifty in the way Zoro wasn't looking at him.  
  
"Nothing. I didn't do anything, we all did," Zoro said turning to look at him squarely in the eye. There was a world of pain and anger reflected in them and it made Sanji's heart clench. "But don't worry she also took a part of you. We're alive thanks to you and you're alive thanks to us, leave it at that."  
  
Sanji closed his eyes and leaned back, a rush of relief and tiredness washing over him. He was glad to live, and even more to know everyone one else also lived.  
  
"It's over," he said in a broken whisper. "It's really over."  
  
"Yes."  
  
He couldn't help it then, couldn't stop it and didn't even care if Zoro saw. He had been so scared, so fucking terrified of losing, of failing again. He didn't want to die, but he had wanted to lose even less. The tears stung his eyes and slid down his temples, silently at first and then in huge wracking sobs. There was no way to stop the flood now, his entire body convulsing in a mixture of pain and relief, the images of his dead nakama merging with Zoro's words in his mind.  
  
It was over.  
  
He felt hands clumsily patting his head, giving him the comfort of touch and warmth, the assurance of the other person's life. Suddenly the hands were grabbing his shoulders, awkwardly pulling him up and against a strong chest.  
  
"Fucking shitty cook, always doing things your way," Zoro whispered in his ear, "always thinking you're stronger than anyone else and that you have to do everything on your own. I could kill you for pulling that shit on us."  
  
Sanji almost laughed something about pots and kettles on the tip of his tongue. He didn't voice it, though; too busy crying his eyes out.  
  
After what felt like an eternity his tears dried and he pulled out of Zoro's embrace slowly, looking around for his pack of cigarettes. He needed a smoke to compose himself.  
  
"Here," Zoro stood up and grabbed them from one of the cabinets, passing them to Sanji and sitting again in the chair next to the bed. He was a bit flushed but his eyes were completely dry.  
  
He smoked in silence enjoying the simple pleasure of the nicotine rushing through his system, the taste of tobacco in his mouth and the smell of the smoke around him. It was comforting to do something so trivial after the whole ordeal.  
  
"I'll go tell the guys you're already awake," Zoro said after a while, standing up and moving to the door. "You're in for a long rant from Luffy and probably a couple of punches from the Sea-witch."  
  
Sanji nodded, he had guessed as much considering the marimo's reaction. He was really lucky if that was all they did to him.  
  
"And Sanji," Zoro said from the door, turning to look at him with a smirk on his face. "When you're out of here we'll talk about kissing dying people who won't remember it."  
  
Sanji's heart stopped at that, his face flushing. Zoro couldn't know, could he? One look at his expression told him he could, and indeed, he knew.  
  
Was it too late to seek Death and ask her to reconsider letting him live? Zoro was surely going to kill him.  
  
"Let's see if you can do that again when I won't forget," Zoro finished with a last amused look and closed the door after him. Sanji stared at the closed door and sighed, leaning back on the bed.  
  
He could hear the noise of his Captain and the rest of the crew approaching: loud cries of hunger, kicks, punches and general chaos walking toward him.  
  
Another near death experience for the Straw Hats--too near for comfort, but what the hell, nothing new--and normal life returned to the Sunny.  
  
Everything stayed the same.  
  
Or not, he thought closing his eyes and smiling, Zoro's face swimming into focus in his mind.  
  
Maybe some things did change.  
  
…  
  
~Fin~  
  
**Omake**  
  
The Black Ship stood still in the eye of a huge storm, its crew playing cards on the deck or just lazing about, its Captain sitting on the Crow's Nest, eyes scanning the turbulent waters of the sea.  
  
The next red moon was almost a month away and there wasn't much for them to do until then.  
  
A shimmering shape materialized next to him. An old woman, face wreathed in lines of sorrow and kind, gentle eyes.  
  
Looks could be so deceiving.  
  
"I win," she said to him.  
  
The Captain looked almost like her, his own shape translucent and his face as aged as hers.  
  
"You cheated," he said, not sounding very upset. It had been an interesting match, one he didn't mind losing. And besides, the Straw Hats Pirates hadn't been good candidates for Hell, they were too nice.  
  
"I didn't!" She was offended and he smiled his face turning into that of a handsome young man. "I won fair and square; you didn't take even one of them."  
  
"You helped them; I was so close to adding their souls to my collection--" It would have been a pity, though. He hadn't stooped so low as to enjoy harvesting good souls. But he had to do what he had to do.  
  
She also smiled, "But you didn't, so it's my win."  
  
"Stop repeating it, idiot! I got it the first time!" He said without much heat, a smile paying on his lips. "Do you think they'll ever notice you didn't take anything from them?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, I don't think they will. They offered, and that was all there was to it. They passed the test."  
  
"Yes, I knew they would. But it was close."  
  
"It always is when they do."  
  
He stood up and turned to look out of the window. "Hey, when can we return home? I'm getting tired of this place."  
  
She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing a bit. "Soon, we've almost served out our punishment. A couple more tainted souls and they'll let us back. The next ship is on the way, I think they are called the Blackbeard Pirates. They are perfect candidates for the game." She smiled again and there was nothing kind in it this time.  
  
"Good for salvation?" he said, his smile matching hers.  
  
"No, the other way round. I'll enjoy harvesting those souls."  
  
He laughed, "So I'll have to play the kind Death this time."  
  
She gave him a look. "You don't do kind."  
  
"I know."  
  
They chuckled together, sharing the joke, and returned to watch the ocean, waiting for their next chance.  
  
Soon they'd return home.  
  
…  
  
~Fin~


End file.
